


Feral Citizens

by TheWalkingDeathEater



Category: The Walking Dead (Comics), The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Apocalypse, Don't Have to Know Canon, Eventual Romance, Everyone is Dead, Family Drama, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Please Don't Hate Me, The Author Regrets Everything, The Walking Dead AU, Thriller, Walkers (Walking Dead), Weird Plot Shit, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-05 08:11:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 41,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15166364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWalkingDeathEater/pseuds/TheWalkingDeathEater
Summary: Based around the events of AMC's 'The Walking Dead', Feral Citizens diverts from Canon by introducing Elizabeth 'Liz' and Josephine 'Josie' Warren, two sisters running from their old group and the deaths of their entire family. Meeting Rick along the way, Liz and Josie will affect the paths taken by each group member as their story continues.





	1. Part One: An Officer In Need

Running through a forest is harder than you think.

Seriously. The ground's uneven, and slippery as shit. It's even worse when you're running for your life, not sure if the rustling behind you is a person, a walker, or just an animal.

Josephine, my sister, was having much better luck than me. Small and petite, she was able to dart between trees, and avoid the hanging branches. The forest eventually thinned and we reached a slope, and beyond that, a gas station.

"If we hide over there, we might get away."

"Are they still followin' us?" She had a point, I looked back cautiously, scanning for the metal of a gun, held by a hostile survivor, or the decaying flesh of a fireman we had passed a while back. Nothing.

"We should still go down, maybe we can rig a car, get back to Arkansas."

"Clarksville is nine whole hours in the car." It was a valid argument, I supposed.

"It's safer than walkin', it'll take us a whole week."

"So we wait-" A weak snarl echoed from behind Josie, and we silently agreed that yes, hiding in the gas station was a very good idea.

It was a graveyard in front of the gas station. Abandoned cars were scattered around, and it looked like there had been some kind of campsite set up. It hadn't lasted.

"Uggk!" A walker trapped inside an ugly, canary yellow car had seen us. It banged against the glass uselessly. One good thing about them. Alone, they were weak, it wasn't even scratching the window.

"Ugly piece of shit." I spat, flipping the bird in its direction. We left it behind us as we crept around the abandoned campsite. One trapped walker was nothing. More than a few, however...

BANG! A gunshot. I muffled Josie's frightened scream with my hand, and we knelt down behind a truck. Shit. I moved my hand, and mouthed,

"Gun out. Now." She withdrew the Glock 17 from its holster, and I did the same with my own. We'd been bought the guns by our father some time ago, as a present. I also carried a folding survival knife and a professional bow and arrow, which was a pretty strange thing to some people. My parents had saved up for a whole year to buy me it when I was 16, after I'd won a high-school archery competition. And I had a damn good shot.

The bow was my choice of weapon at this moment. It was quieter. If we were lucky, we'd get out of this without a fight, and we wouldn't need to use a gun. We stood, and silently advanced towards the sound of the gunshot.

"What can ya see?" Josie turned to me, and whispered back,

"It's a cop."

"Why the hell would an officer still be wearin' his uniform." She shrugged. "Why did he shoot?"

"Walker." I peered around her for a better look.

Just as the stranger turned around and saw me.

"Shit." I ducked back, but it was too late. There was no way he didn't spot me. No freaking way.

"Excuse me." Oh, he'd seen us alright. "Excuse me ma'am, I don't wanna hurt you, I need some help."

"You'll be fine. Just go your way, an' I'll go mine."

"I've run outta gas for my car. I'm lookin' for my wife and son, you might've seen them, they're both from here."

"I don' live here. We're on a trip." Damn, I kind felt sorry for him. "We'll come out if you put your gun away."

"It already is." I took Josie's hand, and led her out, keeping her partially behind me. We'd put our weapons away, since the guy had been nice enough to do the same. He looked at Josie, and sadness shone in his eyes. "Sorry for scaring your daughter."

"She ain't my daughter, she's my sister."

"Sorry, I just thought-"

"I know, everyone does." He spoke, introducing himself as Rick Grimes.

"Elizabeth Warren. Or Liz. And this is Josie." I felt the tension and worry lift off my shoulders; Rick smiled and spoke,

"Listen, I have a car back there, it's running on fumes, but if you know about any gas stations that still have somethin'-"

"There won't be none. Gas'll have been one of the first things taken. Might be some in one of the farmhouses further up."

"No, I won't steal-"

"Listen, Rick, there ain't nobody to steal from. Thought you said you were from around here, how could you not know?"

"I-I've been in a coma. God knows how long it was. Woke up to find the world's gone to hell and my wife and son are missing."

"Jesus. Sorry." A coma? Really? Josie looked at me, and I knew she was thinking the same thing. Either this guy was really unlucky, or he was lying. Who could still be alive with all those walkers stumbling around? I was willing to bet everything in my bag that hospitals would be crowded with roamers. "Listen, it was nice to meet ya and all, but we should be going."

"Isn't it better if we stick together?"

"We don' even know you!"

"Listen- there's meant to be a refugee camp in Atlanta, I think my wife and son might have went there."

"I didn' hear of no refugee camp." Then again, I wasn't even from Georgia. And the only people I'd met hadn't really been bothered about finding an army-led area. They'd preferred a more violent approach.

We followed Rick to his car, a surprisingly well-kept police vehicle. He threw open the back seat and held out his hand towards us. Guess he was being serious about that invitation. "Listen, we barely even know you, and I'm-"

"I'm hungry" Josie's input was most definitely not helpful at a time like this. I opened my mouth to remind her that we still had bags of mixed nuts, and herb crackers, and promptly changed my mind. When was the last time we had real food? An actual meal with meat, cooked and full of flavour. Herb crackers have flavour, but they were dry without any water, which we were quickly running out of. "Can we go? Please?"

No. No, no, no no no nonononono-

"Fine."

___________________________________________

"Hello? Police officer out here. Can I borrow some gas? Hello? Hello? Anybody home?"

"Careful. Whoever's home may not be a as friendly as they used to be. Hell, they probably ain't even alive." He ignored my comment and peered through the window, before gagging and stumbling back against the porch fence. "What? Whadd'ya see?" Yikes. Four bodies of what was obviously a family were decaying on the floor. And in the father's hand, a shotgun. "Took the easy way out. Bunch'a cowards."

Both Rick and Josie jumped when I forced the front door open, knife out and in front of me.

"What are you doing?!" Rick hissed, standing in the doorframe. Poor guy probably hated the thought of entering somebody's home. Personally, I didn't see a problem with it, they were busy stinking up the living room. "This is trespassing."

"Nah it ain't. They're dead, murder-suicide by the looks of it. We're just going in and takin' the shit they ain't usin' no more." Upon seeing horror ripple across his face, I continued, "We need it, they don't, pure'n'simple."

Rick was waiting outside with Josie when I exited the house, a new backpack full of goods. Like Rick, Josie hated the idea of stealing, and taking food and supplies from a house with the family rotting inside would've made her feel sick. Still, I stood by my opinion: we needed this shit to survive.

"Don' look at me like that. I got meds, bandages, four cans of food and the dead lady was carrying a full pack of cigarettes."

"You took cigarettes from a dead person?" He replied. I shrugged, lighting one up. Rick turned away and walked around the back of the house, and Josie and I followed.

In the field was a horse, it's beautiful torso twisted and turned as it tried its best to stop Rick from coming near it. Rick rested his hand on its neck gently, coaxing the animal to calm down. Almost immediately the horse's uneasiness settled and it was relaxed enough to look him in the eyes. It snorted softly and stood silent.

"Easy now, easy. I'm not gonna hurt you. Nothing like that. More like a proposal. Atlanta's just down the road ways. It's safe there. Food, shelter, people, other horses too, I bet. How's that sound?" The horse whinnied lightly and nudged its head against Rick; I sighed in relief. We weren't getting kicked it the face for now, thank god. "There we go. Good boy. Good boy. Now come with me. Come with me." Upon seeing me repressing laughter, he raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Look at you. Rick Grimes, horse whisperer." He walked straight past me with the horse in tow and climbed up. "We should stick the kid between me and you. I'll sit on the back."

"You sure?"

"Not a big fan of horses; the further away I am from its mouth, the better." He laughed and pulled Josie up behind him. Clearly uncomfortable with being so close to our new friend, I had to silently encourage her to hold on to his waist, which she did with disdain. I clambered up after her and prayed that the horse was well trained.

"Let's go easy, ok? I haven't done this for years." It was a rocky start. I held my breath and dug into Josie's shoulders; the horse continued to veer different directions, stopping suddenly and then moving just as quickly. "Easy. Easy, boy. Easy, easy, easy."

"I thought you knew how to ride a horse."

"I do, I just haven't done it in a while."

Finally, after nearly stumbling into a pole twenty minutes down the road, the stupid horse started to walk steadily. We passed no walkers on the way down, although I thought I spotted someone moving in a field just outside a barn; when I turned back to show Rick, the figure was gone.

I was able to appreciate the Georgia landscape for once too. Before shit hit the fan, I'd only left Arkansas once to attend university. The furthest I'd ever gone was Tennessee. Georgia was pretty, with long stretching fields of greenery that went hand-in-hand with the hard tarmac. Looking into its forests caused a resurgence of paranoia; they were dark, and a walker could have easily jumped out before anyone could see a damn thing. I'd already been on the wrong end of that kind of attack.

Rick broke the silence first, "Why exactly did you decide to come to Georgia?"

"My Aunt Ruth. She was ill, broke her pelvis or somethin'. Mom said the stitches had gotten infected, so we were on our way to visit."

"But ya'll never made it."

"We just got into Georgia from Alabama, the bus stopped somewhere around near some creek, began with a 'W'"

"Williams Creek?"

"That's the one. Anyway, the bus driver pulled up, got out, and he comes back in with this chick; she's covered head to toe in mud, and soaking wet. Said her boyfriend went hunting with his friends and got bitten, he said it was from a coyote, she wasn't so convinced. They'd gone on some date, he'd wandered off feeling sick, then came back looking like shit. Bit her, then chased her down a stream."

"So she was bitten."

"Oh yeah. Right in the shoulder, no chance of trying to cut that off." The memories flashed back into my head, of that young girl sat on the top step, terrified, not knowing that in the next few hours, she would die and come back as something awful. "She turned just outside of Waco."

He stopped talking. I stopped thinking, and instead turned back to the trees.

______________________________________

"No. No." Rick was pale and clammy, even his sweat had stopped streaming down the back of his neck. His knuckles tightened on the reins as we looked at what remained of Atlanta. "No."

"So much for a refugee centre, this place is dead." Atlanta was a ghost town; the few groans of the dead were further away from my sight. Even so, I nocked an arrow and kept myself steady on the horse. "Rick, we should go, we're not going to find anyone here."

"No." This time, he meant something else. "If there's a centre, they'll be hidden away somewhere. We've still gotta find my wife and son, and your Aunt."

"Fun."

A broken-down bus housing a few sluggish walkers was up ahead, and they ambled outside lazily to try and get a once in a lifetime chance at a snack. The horse whinnied nervously, staggering around their outstretch hands.

"Steady. It's just a few. Nothing we can't outrun." Rick broke into a trot, moving faster and faster past walkers. The sound of a helicopter from above caught his attention, and he jerked the reins to get the horse to move faster. We were going too fast, if we ran into anything we'd never have enough time to slow down and get away.

"Rick." He ignored me, urging the horse to speed up. Up ahead, the moans from earlier became louder, and louder. "Rick. Rick, stop, slow down."

We jerked around the corner in time to come face to face with a large herd of walkers; they gnashed teeth, blood, foam and saliva dripping from their decaying faces. The horse screeched as they surged forward, claws grabbing at its legs. Rick turned and the horse found itself facing a different herd. "Shit!"

We crashed to the ground, and horse serving as a shield from the majority of the walkers, who scooped flesh from its flank and ate greedily. My stomach churned at the sound of the horses screams as it was torn apart by bony hands. Josie sobbed, and clung to me whilst I drove an arrow into the head of a shambling corpse. More continued to come forward; my saving grace was hearing Rick scream "The tank!" before crawling under.

"Come on!" We knocked two walkers away and crawled behind Rick. He lay frozen under the tank, gun against his temple. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Lori, Carl, I'm sorry."

"The hatch, you shithead!" He made an 'oomph' sound as I crawled over him and pushed Josie through the hatch underneath the tank, climbing in myself. Rick barely made it, two rotting hands ripped his undershirt in a bid to pull him back into their clutches.

"The bag. I dropped the damn bag."

"Yeah, well, shit happens." Josie cried out when the soldier I had believed to be dead turned his head to me and snarled. Rick barely lifted his gun before I drove my arrow through his head; it snapped upon contact with the metal of the tank wall. "Just my friggin' luck"

Outside, groans and snarls echoed from all directions. We'd have to sit them out, which could take several days. My bag contained enough for me and Josie, with Rick here it wouldn't last long.

Radio static from inside the tank startled me; my head collided with the top of the tank; a stream of profanities followed. The radio crackled and buzzed to life; and a voice could just be heard over the static.

"Hey, you. Dumb ass. Hey, you guys in the tank. Cosy in there?"

I dropped my knife; the clink of metal against metal distracted Rick from the radio, which had gone silent. It had been so long since I'd met more than one stranger on the road. The radio buzzed again, and the voice crackled back into existence, "Hey, are you alive in there?" Rick made a desperate scramble for the radio, ripping it from its post

"Hello?" There was silence from the other side. "Hello?" Finally, the voice came back.

"There you are. You had me wondering."

"Where are you? Outside? Can you see us right now?"

"Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by walkers." Because that wasn't obvious. "That's the bad news."

"There's good news?"

"No." The guy replied. Josie's sweaty hand tightened around my wrist; she looked up to me, those big green eyes wide and questioning. Her long hair had fallen out of her ponytail, I'd have to cut it shorter to keep it out of the way of walkers.

"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind tellin' you, we're a little concerned in here." The man on the radio chuckled.

"Oh man. You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak-out."

"Rick, he's not helping right now."

"Got any advice for me?"

"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it."

"That's it? "Make a run for it?"

"Is he an idiot?"

"My way's not as dumb as it sounds. You've got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. With me so far?"

"So far."

"Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you all move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance. Got ammo?"

"In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can I get to it?"

"Forget the bag, okay? It's not an option. What do you guys have on you?"

"Hang on." He took out his gun and counted the bullets, I withdrew a knife, and stopped Josie from counting her own bullets.

"Why?"

"Ain't gonna need them. I've got a knife, just stay behind me." Rick repeated back all our weapon information to the man, who 'hmm'ed along and told us what to do.

"Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Be there."

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Have you been listening? You're running out of time."

"Right." Before opening the hatch, Rick grabbed a shovel and showed it to me,

"Yeah, that's good. Try using that before you touch the gun."

One walker stood swaying on top of the tank. He growled and started towards us. A quick swipe of the shovel sent his tumbling, his jaw hanging by strings of skin. The walkers that were struggling to reach the horse's body turned and noticed us, a much easier, alive prey. They followed us as we tore through Atlanta's abandoned streets, hacking at spooks that got in our way. After a particularly hard stab, Rick lost the shovel, and pulled his gun to start shooting. "No! You'll draw them to us!" Too late. He fired again, and again, and again.

We rounded and corner and came face to face with a person, at the sight of Rick's gun he threw his hands up and shouted "Whoa! Not dead! Come on!" The man from the radio. Despite my concerns about his 'honest' intentions, we hurried down the alleyway, followed by a horde of hungry spooks. "Come on! Back here! Come on! Come on!"

He clambered up an emergency ladder with Josie right behind him. Rick and I managed to just barely get high enough before the ladders were swarmed with the undead, grabbing at our legs. I made sure that I didn't look down but felt sick anyway. Heights were one thing, climbing with the possibility of falling to my death was another story.

The man from the radio leaned against the railing, clearly out of breath, and shape. "All three of you are idiots. What, did you think the geeks would just stay out of your way?"

"Not exactly."

"Yeah, whatever. You're all a bunch of dumbasses." Upon further looking, he backpedalled "Except maybe your kid."

Rick and I both corrected him at the same time "She's not my kid." He blinked and shrugged it off.

"Oh no." The walkers were trying to climb up the ladders, and one seemed to be succeeding. "We should get outta here. I'm Glenn, by the way."

"Rick"

"Liz. And this is Josie." We jogged across the rooftops, leaping over small gaps between the buildings, much to my chagrin. And of course, Rick decided to make small talk.

"Are you the one that barricaded the alley?"

"Somebody did... I guess when the city got overrun. Whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get through."

"You keep using the word geeks, is that what you call'em?"

"Yeah, a good a word as any."

"And you were willing to risk ya life to save us from them? Why?"

"Call it foolish, naive hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me. Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you guys." He turned on the radio and spoke into it "I'm back. Got three guests plus four geeks in the alley." In his desperate bid to try and get to the door, Glenn failed to notice the two spooks until he almost crashed into them. "Jesus!"

They crowded us, my back pressed hard against the rail; I barely noticed the door open until the spooks were being bashed into the pavement by two men wearing gear. Glenn pushed me forwards, and I ran through the door.

Something blonde and angry tackled me and shoved me against a table. I squeezed my eyes shut upon impact and opened them to find myself face to face with the barrel of a gun. "What the f-"

"You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you." Glenn pushed Josie and Rick behind him, leaving me in the hands of the angry, red-faced blonde woman. Behind her, I spotted the two men removing their gear; beside them was a black woman. She moved closer and tried to calm down the woman with the gun.

"Come on, ease up"

"Just chill out, Andrea." One of the men barked, "Back off."

"Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of these stupid assholes."

"Hey, watch who you're calling assholes, bitch." She bared her teeth, spittle flying. Maybe I'd pissed her off? Being on the other side of her gun was rather eye-opening; I noticed the safety hadn't been taken off. Who was the stupid asshole now?

"Jesus, Andrea, they've got a kid with them." Andrea glanced behind Glenn, where Josie was holding back tears, her tiny hands reaching into her bag to pull out her gun. I wanted to punch Andrea for making her cry. I really did.

It appeared that Andrea saw the same thing I did; her face softened, and the gun dropped down. I knocked past her, which was admittedly brattish on my part, though her face was worth it when I called back "If you're gonna aim a gun at me again, it's best to take the safety off."

Rick and the Hispanic man were stalking ahead. Curiosity took the better of me, and I dragged Josie to hear them. "Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral." Morales led through the department store, most of the mannequins were knocked over and unclothes, and whilst the store was full of dresses, skirts and shoes, it had seemingly been looted of anything that was wearable for our current situation. I found a pair of cargo pants and shoved them into my backpack for later. I'd sew them if they didn't fit.

"Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds." The other man chimed in.

"You just rang the dinner bell." Jesus. Outside, there was a dozen spooks banging on the glass doors. One of them managed to make its way through the group of corpses with rock in its hands and managed to crack the first layer of glass.

"Christ, is that thing smart or somethin'?" The survivors had begun to babble to each other, taking turns between berating Rick, and denying that he could have ever seen a helicopter.

"You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things. It happens."

"I saw it." I voiced my agreement, not that they paid much attention. The walkers banging on the door were slowly attracting more and more walkers, and I don't think any of us knew how long those glass doors would last.

"Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B. Can you contact the others?" The man- T-Dog- lifted his own walkie and tried communicating.

"Others?" Rick perked up, "The refugee centre?" The other woman snorted in amusement, turning away to sit on a counter.

"Yeah, the refugee centre. They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us." T-Dog swore as the walkie buzzed lifelessly.

"Got no signal. Maybe the ro-" BANG! BANG!

"Holy shit, were those gunshots!?"

"Oh no. Is that Dixon?"

"What is that maniac doing?" Morales muttered, pushing past Andrea to climb up the stairway to the rooftop.

"Come on, let's go." We followed Glenn up the stairwell. Up on the roof, Morales had just burst out of the door and began shouting at someone. T-Dog grabbed my arm from behind me and said,

"Ya'll gonna wanna watch yourselves. Merle ain't the nicest guy to meet."

On the roof ledge stood an older man -maybe late 30s, early 40s- who brandished a gun. He wore leather, a torn baggy shirt, and jeans. "Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh? Ah! Only common sense." The air reeked with his arrogance, and maybe a little too much body odour.

"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got!" Merle Dixon took the damn to jump down as T-Dog continued to rant. "And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill."

"Hey! Bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day." My heart flew up to my mouth. We'd managed to land ourselves in the middle of a group of angry people, one of whom seemed to have racist opinions. To be safe, I withdrew my knife; Rick looked at me and shook his head. I couldn't take that risk.

"'That'll be the day?' You got something you want to tell me?"

"Hey, T-Dog man, just leave it." Morales pleaded,

"No."

"All right? It ain't worth it. Now Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble." Merle snorted and continued to taunt T-Dog,

"You want to know the day?"

"Yeah."

"I'll tell you the day, Mr. 'Yo.' It's the day I take orders from a nigger." Shit. T-Dog paled, before launching himself at Merle, with no luck. Merle hit back quickly and hard, a sharp crack to the nose from Merle's gun send T-Dog flying. He never got a hit in. Merle was sat on his chest before anyone could move to stop him, holding a smaller handgun, the large rifle dropped.

Rick started to edge around the rooftop, slowly wrapping his hand around the gun whilst everyone else begged and pleaded with Merle. "Hey, come on, Merle. That's enough."

"Come on. Dixon!"

"Whoa, cut it out, man!"

"Stop it! Dixon, get off him! Dixon, you're gonna hurt him." If it had been appropriate, I would have commented on how he'd already hurt him. T-Dog was beaten to a pulp, blood trickling from his mouth and nose. "Merle, cut it out" Merle aimed the pistol; the atmosphere changed immediately. "No no no, please. Please." And then they were all quiet. Rick was still moving carefully to the group, where Merle stood triumphant, waving the gun around and yelling,

"Yeah! All right! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favour? Huh? Come on. Let's see 'em." One by one, everyone raised their hands between caring for the injured T-Dog. Merle rocked back on his heels and laughed, "Oh, come on. All in favour? Yeah. That's good. Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?"

"Yeah." Smack. Merle fell back against the pipes; Rick took the opening and attached a set of handcuffs to one of Merle's wrists. The other circled a small metal screw.

"Who the hell are you, man?!"

"Officer friendly. Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no niggers anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either." Mildly offensive, but okay Rick, okay. "Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart."

"Screw you, man."

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point."

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice." Rick put the pistol to Merle's head

"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun. Only common sense."

"You wouldn't." Merle sneered, "You're a cop."

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that. Got some on your nose there." Ah, damn. I'd thought he was an alcoholic. Drugs were hard to get in an apocalypse; my brother had learnt that the hard way.

"What are you gonna do? Arrest me?" Instead, I was able to watch Rick throw Merle Dixon's bag over the roof. "Hey! What are you doing? Man, that was my stuff! Hey! If I get loose, you'd better pray... Yeah, you hear me, you pig?! You hear me?!"

"Yeah, your voice carries."

"Do you hear me, you filthy pig?!" Rick walked to join me and Josie alongside the roof edge. Morales moved to join us.

"You're not Atlanta P.D. Where you from?"

"I'm from up the road a ways. These two, I'm not quite sure." Morales looked to me for an answer,

"Clarksville, Arkansas."

"Well, Officer Friendly from 'Up The Road AWays', welcome to the big city."    


	2. Surrounded

"My God, it's like Times Square down there." Andrea looked down at the hordes of spooks stumbling around Atlanta's streets. We were no closer to finding a way out than ten minutes ago, and Merle, quite frankly, was pissing me off. He hadn't said anything, just stared and smirked, like he'd just figured out something I didn't know.

"How's that signal?" T-Dog tweaked the radio controls, listening to the static and silence.

"Like Dixon's brain... Weak." Cue a bird flip from the asshole cuffed to the pipes. Shame.

"Keep trying."

"Why?" Andrea challenged, "There's nothing they can do. Not a damn thing." They? Andrea and Morales turned to me; I'd clearly said what I was thinking instead.

"Got some people outside the city is all. There's no refugee centre. That's a pipe dream."

"No shit."

"Never mind that. We need to think of a way to get outside."

"Rick, I don't wanna shit on your parade, but that ain't as easy as you might think." Merle chuckled, and surprisingly agreed,

"Might wanna listen to tha' girl. These streets ain't safe in this part of town from what I hear." He leered at Andrea "Ain't that right, sugar tits? Hey, honey bunch, what say you get me out of these cuffs, we go off somewhere and bump some uglies? Gonna die anyway."

"I'd rather."

"Rug muncher. I figured as much." Receiving no love from Andrea, Merle's sneering, arrogant self turned around as far as he could, grinning at me. I considered opening the door and walking back down the stairwell. "What about you sweetheart? Wanna knock boots?" Rather than beat the shit out of him (it would likely be applauded by some, and unloved by others), and resorted to a much calmer approach.

"Oh sugah, you couldn' handle me." His laughter followed me and Josie all the way downstairs, into the backroom of the department store. Josie took a seat amongst the unopened boxes of clothing and interior decoration, resting on a pile of designer dresses. The banging from outside was getting louder and louder. I took this chance to gather a handfuls of spare clothing, fitting whatever I could into my backpack.

"What are we going to do?"

"Well, uh, Rick and Glenn are busy figuring out a plan, and-"

"Not that. What are we gonna do after we get out?" I stopped. Clothing dangled from my hand as I considered this. I had no plans to stay with Rick, he'd just been useful in helping us get to Atlanta. And away from there. "We should stay with them. They have people, and probably food, and shelter."

"No."

"But-"

"I said no Josie." She looked down at her shoes; a pang of guilt hit me hard. Leaning down, I spoke softly, "Hey, look at me. It's not that I don't want those things- I do. But the last group we fell in with wasn't great. I don' wanna risk it. We get outta here, we get to their camp, and then we leave."

"Sorry for the gun in your friend's face." Andrea's voice floated into the room from the front entrance of the department store. Curiosity took over, and I crept to the doorway to listen to their conversation.

"People do things when they're afraid."

"Not that it was entirely unjustified. You three did get us into this."

"I'm not sure Liz sees it that way. Next time though, take the safety off. It won't shoot otherwise."

"So that's what she meant."

"Is that your gun?"

"It was a gift. Why?"

"Little red dot means it's ready to fire. You may have occasion to use it."

"Good to know." Shuffling footsteps, and the clink of something small and metallic.

"See something you like?"

"Not me, but I know someone who would... My sister. She's still such a kid in some ways. Unicorns, dragons... She's into all that stuff. But mermaids... They rule. She loves mermaids." Maybe it was because I had a little sister, but I suddenly felt the desire I had to knock Andrea on her ass disappear. My sister loved Disney, and she'd been devastated to learn that we'd left her Cinderella doll at home when we left to visit Aunt Ruth. Aunt Ruth who was likely dead.

When I opened the doors to the main department, Andrea and Rick were stood staring at a necklace. To avoid scaring them, and subsequently getting shot, I made sure I was heavier on my feet than usual. "Do we have a plan yet?"

"Glenn and Morales have went down into the sewers to see if we can escape through a manhole or somethin'."

The walker's growls seemed to get louder, I turned in time to see the first layer of glass finally give in, crashing down into tiny shards. The walkers advanced, beginning to thump on the second, and final, layer that was between them and us.

A shaken Morales, Glenn and Jacqui appeared behind Andrea. From the expressions on their faces, it wasn't good news. "What did you find down there?"

"Not a way out."

"We need to find a way... And soon."

______________________________________________________________

"That construction site, those trucks... They always keep keys on hand."

"Are you kidding me?" I stared out over rooftop, watching a dozen walkers cluster together in the area Rick was referring to. "It's also on the other side of the square. We'd never make it past the spooks."

"Spooks?"

"Walkers, Geeks, Spooks, same thing."

"Glenn got us out of that tank."

"Yeah, but they were feeding. They were distracted."

"Can we distract them again?"

"Right. Listen to him. He's onto something. A diversion, like on 'Hogan's Heroes.'" Merle chuckled at his own 'joke'.

"God. Give it a rest."

"They're drawn by sound, right?"

"Right, like dogs. They hear a sound, they come."

"What else?"

"Aside from they hear you? They see you, smell you and if they catch you, they eat you."

"They can tell us by smell?"

"They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty distinct." Rick thought and nodded his head,

"I have an idea. First, we need to get one of those walkers from outside."

"Why?"

"We're gonna cover ourselves in its guts, get to the truck, and drive it back here to pick everyone else up." He'd gone insane. There was a large number of mumbles and arguments flying throughout around, the angriest from Andrea and myself.

"Are you an idiot man?"

"We don't even know if that would work."

"We don't. But we gotta try, we gotta do something." I gave up on listening, it was easier. Instead, I looked over to the other side of the roof, where another roof entrance stood alone and unopened. I knew that it didn't lead into anywhere in the department store. That meant that it lead into the building next door, which wouldn't have a dozen walkers at the doors, waiting to kill us.

"Jacqui, do you know what building is next door?" Jacqui bit her lip and tapped her fingers against the side of the rooftop. "Is it another department store or somethin'?"

"No. I think it's an office block. Why?"

"Because that door probably leads into the office, and I think we might be able to escape through there."

"That's just as crazy as his plan. We'd just be trapping ourselves in another building."

"Not necessarily." Jacqui bounced on the balls of her feet and jogged to the other side of the roof, looking to the ground. "Look."

Outside the back of the office building, there was a parking lot. A half wall and bushes blocked it from the main street, where the majority of the walkers were collecting. The area between them had some, but not a lot, and the parking lot itself only had four walkers inside.

Several cars sat inside the parking lot, but the only thing that stood out to me was the miracle in front of us; a truck, parked neatly at the edge of the lot. Strapped in the driver's seat, flailing around, was a walker. Its flesh was barely hanging onto its bones. Morales picked up a pair of battered binoculars and started laughing, clenching the binoculars in one hand, the other hand was busy pumping the air. "Gracias Jesús!"

"What? Whaddya see?"

"The keys are still in the ignition. Walkers must've got him before he shut the door." He continued to speak to himself in Spanish before reverting to English again, "If we can get to the parking lot, we can get that truck and go."

"Okay. Liz, you got anything else to add?"

"Better. I have a plan."

____________________________________________________

"You want us to act as bait?" Whatever good mood Morales had been in, it was gone. "What if we get eaten?"

"If you stick to the plan, ya won't." I produced a map I had drawn on a spare piece of paper. "The parking lot is around the back of the office. We'll have to go through the entire building to get there, so it's best if two people go in now with knives and clear it out before we all go in later. So, I want Jacqui and Rick down here moving shelves and anything heavy to right near the doorway whilst T-Dog and I go clear out the building."

"What about me?" Andrea asked. Glenn and Josie echoed her.

"Andrea, you come with us then. Glenn, I need you out here with Morales. Draw as many walkers to the doors as you can, shout if you have to. I need the area cleared. Rick, after you and Jacqui move the shelves, I want you waiting on the roof."

"What about the door to the roof?" T-Dog asked,

"What about it?"

"We can padlock it. The bar can be moved to the outside. They won't be able to follow us across."

"Good, that's good. We'll need to go straight back down after we've cleared the office building."

"What's the point? All the walkers will just go in anyway."

"Because not all of them will be stopped by the blockade. Morales and Glenn will be the last ones out of the department entryway, so they'll need to pick up the bags. We'll have knives to put the walkers down without making too much noise."

"I can help." Josie piped up, Rick shook his head, then looked to me,

"She can help." Andrea made a strangled noise behind me, "Something wrong with that?"

"She's a kid!"

"She's a kid who's killed walkers. I'm gonna let her help Morales and Glenn."

"She'll be right in harm's way."

"She's small and fast. She'll manage." Rick looked like he wanted to say something but decided against it. He tapped Jacqui's shoulder and they began pulling shelves across the room to the doorway exiting the department entryway. I made sure they positioned them to the sides, so they would be easy to pull down and block the exit when the walkers got close enough.

Andrea and T-Dog took two steps at a time to keep up with me as we moved to the roof; Merle was sat trying to bust the pipe open, with no actual damage being dealt. "T-Dog, you wanna try and get a hold of your people again?"

"Sure thing." He slid down and brought the radio to life, "Hello, base camp! Can anybody out there hear me? Base camp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me?" Unlike before, a voice, barely audible, crackled across. It was clearly male, but no actual words could be heard. "Shane, is that you?" There wasn't even a voice. The rooftop would have been silent, if it wasn't for the static of the radio echoing across the city. "We're in some deep shit. We're trapped in the department store. There are geeks all over the place. Hundreds of 'em. We're surrounded."

"Where exactly is your group?"

"Quarry. Signal probably isn't too good up there."

"So the sooner we get there..."

"The better." Andrea confirmed. Merle swore in pain behind us, and the three of us had to stifle laughter.

"So what's the plan guys? Comon, don't let me just sit here doing nothin'"

"We're gonna try and clear out the building next door. You are waitin' here." Andrea headed towards the door, a knife at the ready. T-Dog clenched his hatchet and followed her. After waiting for Merle to stop burning holes into the back of my head, I opened the door again, and followed.

The office was dark, and even from up here, I could hear the low moans of a spook downstairs. Andrea and I made eye contact, and she allowed me to take the lead.

At the bottom of the stairs, a walker sat slumped, the bloody bottom half of a rat hanging out of its mouth. Both legs had bones protruding, and an arm had been ripped clean off from the elbow down. It used its remaining hand to drag itself up a few steps by the railing, until I forced the blade of my survival knife through its skull.

"Nice." T-Dog said, stepping over the broken corpse and reaching for the door handle. "I think I've got the next one."

"Be careful." T-Dog pushed the door wide open and jumped back, a trick he claimed had saved him a couple of times. No walker jumped out at us; we were able to scout the room with no problems. My eyes lingered on a picture of a family -a woman, with three children and an old man- before I began searching the desks for anything useful.

Muffled banging and growling from the door we needed to go through allowed Andrea to practise using a knife; she slid it through the walkers' skull like butter and shoved it to the side.

"Do we need to clear out every room?"

"No, only the pathway we need to take. Any walkers behind closed doors can be left there."

The rest of the building contained only twelve other spooks, and each was disposed of easily. T-Dog, while bigger and burlier than both Andrea and I, was quick on his feet and capable of escaping the walkers' snapping jaws. Andrea struggled more, almost losing the knife twice.

To be sure of our exit, I peeked outside to the parking lot. The walkers shambled around, I could count maybe eighteen, not including the one inside the van. "Right, we can go back. We're done here."

The way back up to the rooftop was much quieter. Andrea eventually spoke as we passed by the office lobby. "So, what did you do before?"

"Before?"

"Before the dead started walkin' around."

"Uhh, well, I wasn't really doin' anything. I had put in a couple of job applications, but other than tha'..." Andrea banged her knife against the metal to try and draw out any walkers we may have missed. "What about you. What did you do?"

"Civil Rights Attorney."

"Wow. Which university?"

"Law in Georgia State Uni. Why?"

"Just wondering if we went to the same one. Didn' know if you were from Atlanta or not."

"You went to university?" T-Dog wilted under my steely glare; that was nothing compared to the rage burning inside of me. I should have expected it at some point; people hear the accent and find out your hometown, and suddenly all you are is whittled down to one label: southern white trash. "I didn't mean it like that, you just never mentioned it."

"It didn't come up." I replied coolly. "And yes, I studied at Belmont University in Tennessee."

"For what?" Andrea managed to divert my attention, allowing T-Dog time to relax.

"Environmental psychology. Looked at how human behaviour changed when their environment is altered."

"Pretty damn useful now, huh?" It took me a little while to understand what she had meant; I chortled once it finally hit me.

"Not really. There wasn't a lesson that focused around the dead coming back." The dirty city air flooded into the stairway as the iron door was wrenched open, accompanied by concerned voices.

"You've been down there for ages, what happened?" Jacqui cried, embracing T-Dog and Andrea.

"Nothin'. We had to get through the whole building, took a few wrong turns."

"The walkers?"

"Cleared out. Well, the ones who were in our way."

"Good. Listen, me and Jacqui were thinking of going back down to get the bags-"

"Don't bother. We have to get down there anyway. Wait at the bottom of the stairwell, once everyone but the last few are there, started heading to the entrance. Stay out of sight of the walkers outside and wait to see if everyone else is coming." Rick grabbed my arm as I walked past and mumbled,

"What about Merle?"

"T-Dog has the keys. He's already volunteered to wait until everyone else is in the office building to unlock Merle." He released my arm, and watched T-Dog, Andrea and myself disappear into the department store, face dark and emotionless.

_______________________________________________________

"How's it going?"

"Not bad." Morales smiled at me from the front of the department entrance. "Walkers are piling against the door, they'll be through any minute."

"Then we better make sure this goes well. I'd rather not be swarmed again."

T-Dog, Andrea and I stood by our places next to the archway, hands gripping the shelving and stands, ready to pull them down into a blockade when the spooks finally brought down the glass. Glenn and Josie, smaller than Morales, were further forward, though Josie was much too close to the doors than I would have wanted. I turned to Andrea and T-Dog.

"Ya'll know who you're escortin' right?" They nodded, eyes determined. We'd already been over this. Andrea would be paired with Glenn, T-Dog had Morales, and I was protecting my sister. From the distance between each, I could estimate that Glenn would reach Andrea first, followed by Josie and then Morales. "T-Dog, you remember your part?"

"Bolt the roof door, unlock Merle, make sure he doesn't go AWOL on everyone."

"Okay-" Josie screamed as the glass door shattered, sending walkers tumbling into the lobby. Glenn burst into full sprinting, dashing towards us, when he was suddenly yanked back. Panic gleamed in his eyes before he noticed he was caught on a jewellery stand. He yanked himself free and ran, unaware that the stand had fallen right into the path of my sister and Morales.

"Shit!" I threw my hand in front of T-Dog to stop him from leaping to Morales and Josie. "We need to help them!"

"We're better off here, making sure we don't all die. Andrea managed to get Glenn, do your damn job!" I neglected to mention that I also wanted to dive forward and help them, it wouldn't have been much help.

Josie, who was likely not as winded from the fall as Morales, was just getting up as a walker grabbed her hair. My heart jumping into my throat as she dragged it with her to the entrance, avoiding its bites through speed.

Morales was fending off walkers behind her. He noticed the entrance was halfway pulled down, and the only way through was the way Josie and the walker were. He started limping our way, as Josie pried the walker off her hair and dashed through the exit.

I had to make the choice. By the time Morales made it to us, the walkers would be right on us, all barrelling through the entrance. The walker that had latched onto my sister, stumbled to its feet, and by chance, noticed me first.

Closing my eyes, I grabbed the last shelves, and blocked the entrance.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" T-Dog roared. Shaken, I gathered up some of the remaining bags and turned back to the blockade.

Morales was screaming. Really, truly screaming; the sound was bloodcurdling, the sound of true fear. The walker I had stopped from coming through silenced him with a sharp bite to his throat. Blood gushed, spilling under the blockade. We should have been running upstairs. Instead, I was frozen, watching the man I had just left behind be devoured.

The other walkers reached him and began to feed, tearing tissue from tissue as if it was ground chuck. Some, however, tried reaching through the blockade, indicating that it was time to leave. "We need to get upstairs. Now."

"WE NEED TO HELP HIM-"

"There ain't no helping him. He's dead already." I turned, gripped Josie and dragged her and the bags upstairs; I had to. Because despite saying he was already dead, the gurgles from the other side of the barrier said otherwise.

__________________________________________________

"Where the hell are T-Dog and Morales?" That sinking feeling got bigger and bigger. "What happened?"

"The jewellery stand came down." Andrea and Glenn were panting, clearly out of breath from running through the store and up the stairs with heavy bags. I continued hoarsely, "Morales and Josie got caught up; I didn't have time to stay downstairs to wait for T-Dog."

"We should wait."

"No." Andrea replied firmly, stalking to the other door. "Liz said the plan was to meet up with Rick and Jacqui downstairs, so we go downstairs." Glenn followed, lost for words.

"Hey, guys!" Merle sat up and looked at me pleadingly, "What about me?"

"T-Dog has the key, I can't help you."

"You can't leave me like this."

"I can, and I will." Merle continue to curse me as I stumbled into the office stairway, likely pale and shakier than I felt. I'd left another man to die.

Rick and Jacqui had clearly been caught up on the events in the department store, their faces were drained of colour. "Oh god, what if T-Dog and Morales don't make it back." It was here I should have said something and told them of Morales' fate. My mouth opened, but my tongue remained glued to the bottom of my mouth.

"Should we go?" Rick looked to me, and his expression told me everything. He was willing to leave if we needed to go, but a part of him was aching to race back upstairs and help people. God damn cops.

"T-Dog will be down here soon, we can go get the van while we wait." The hope of rescuing our new allies died in Rick's eyes, but I had to give it to him, he followed me through dutifully.

Outside, the spooks had actually decreased. The breaking of the glass must have attracted most of them. The van, parked neatly in its place, was a shining beacon ahead of us. I opened the glass doors carefully, watching the walkers to make sure none of them noticed living people in the office lobby.

Rick followed me outside, and we managed to cross the road to the parking lot without any run-ins with walkers. The one ahead of Rick and I had its back turned to us; it was easy to swipe its legs out from under it, and lodge a blade into an eye socket. Rick handled another with unexpected ease, taking half of its head away with his axe. Unfortunately, that alerted the other three to our presence.

The first to reach us was a grown woman dressed in only pyjamas decorated in Sesame Street prints. Blood spattered Elmo's face when the top half of her head was taken clean off. I pointed Rick in the direction of the van whilst I handled the other two (Older men dressed in business suits).

Businessman One lurched forward with surprising speed, whilst his co-worker crawled. The knife under the jaw stopped Businessman One in his tracks, whilst I had to bend down to dispatch Businessman Two.

Behind the glass doors, I saw the excitement in everyone's eyes. The idea of leaving was keeping their minds off everything else; including the yet to be seen T-Dog and Merle.

"Liz, we can get the van moving!" Rick's voice bounced around the square, reflecting off buildings.

"Damn it, keep your voice down." I hissed, running at the van to avoid a possible oncoming herd of spooks. I jumped in the back and threw the van doors open as it backed up towards the glass doors.

The doors were opened, and everyone streamed inside, including T-Dog.

Without Merle.

"Where the hell is Dixon?" He flinched at the same time the van doors slammed shut, and we peeled out of the parking lot.

"That's what you wanna talk about?"

"Don't change the damn subject." The van took several sharp turns, and hit something hard, likely either a speed bump or a walker.

"I dropped the damn key."

"You...what?"

"I got the padlock on the roof door, they ain't gonna get him." He looked around wildly at everyone, desperate for some sort of acknowledgement of his words. "The key- I panicked, it fell down the drain."

"Riiight."

"You think I'm lyin'?"

"You didn't like Merle much anyway."

"What about Morales?"

"Wait, where the hell is Morales?!" Rick heard Glenn and turned around in his seat, only to narrowly avoid a concrete block.

"Keep your eyes on the damn road!" I spat, turning to the front seat. Morales' death was not going to be pinned on me. I'd done what I'd had to.

I turned back to answer Glenn and was met with the butt of a shotgun colliding with my face. White hot pain seared through my nose, and I collapsed into darkness.


	3. In Memoriam

** Josie POV **

I'd tried to stop the track of tears streaming down my face, I really did. But seeing my sister, my only family, lying on the floor brought a flood from my eyes. They prickled, but even the waterworks weren't enough to drown out everyone else's voices.

"T-Dog, what the hell!" Andrea dragged Liz's unconscious body to the side of the van and checked her bloody nose. "You're god damn lucky you didn't break it."

"SHE'S THE REASON MORALES IS DEAD!" His words echoed throughout the van. The words were trapped inside, forcing everyone to hear them over and over again in our heads. "She pulled the god damn barricade down before he could make it through! They tore him apart." I felt sick. My tummy churned at the memory of watching another person be ripped into pieces by the monsters. He'd died because of me. Liz had been protecting me.

"I don't understand, why would she do that?" Glenn's head fell back against the metal walls with a thunk. He dropped his machete and bit his lips. "Oh god, no."

"What in the hell are we meant to say to his wife? Or his kids, for that matter." Jacqui was crying. I was crying. Kids, wife, he had a family, wife and kids. Kids that might be my age, waiting for their Dad to come back to them.

"I'm sorry." I blurted out, unable to contain myself. Andrea wrapped her arms around me and scooted sideways to allow T-Dog to help Rick with directions. "If I hadn't gotten grabbed by the walker, she wouldn't have had to pull the barricade down." Those words sank in with the rest of the group. Rick said nothing, but the hard right the van made said everything. Glenn spoke up as the van drove uphill.

"No, it's my fault."

"Glenn..."

"No, it is! My backpack pulled down the jewellery stand. If it hadn't been in the way-"

"You can't blame yourself for that man. That girl," T-Dog jabbed a figure at my unconscious sister. "Should have killed the walker in front of Morales, why didn't she?"

"There were walkers behind him too." I glared up at the man, tears and other gunk forgotten. "Even if he made it to the exit, some of them would have gotten through and blocked the barricade from comin' down."

And for the third time, the van was silent.

____________________________________________

We pulled up to the quarry sometime later. Nobody had spoken for the rest of the journey, there were only a few sniffs, and the occasional breath catching. Andrea was the first to burst out of the van, and she ran into the arms of a small, skinny blonde woman, who was shrieking her name loud enough for the whole of Georgia to hear. "Andrea!"

"Amy!" They sobbed into each other's shoulders, with the smaller blonde woman pounding her fists weakly against Andrea's back

"Oh my god! You scared the shit outta of me!" Soon, everyone else had clambered out of the vehicle, and were greeted equally as warmly. T-Dog, after many hugs, walked to a woman and two children. He spoke softly to the woman, and held her when she collapsed, sobbing and yelling. The rest of their camp looked at her, their own tears threatening to fall.

Fear hit me like a brick wall. My sister was unconscious, and without her, I didn't know what to do. Usually, it was Mommy, Liz or Caleb who had done the talking for me. Rick leaned back from his seat and smiled. His less warming gaze was turned to my sister, who had yet to wake up from being knocked out.

"How'd y'all get out of there anyway?" A man shouted from the camp. He was tall, with a square jaw and a funny nose. His dark eyes seemed caring. Judging from his position in front of everyone, my sister would've probably guessed that he was their leader.

Glenn tore his gaze from Morales' family and replied. "New people... they got us out."

"New guy?"

"Yeah, some cop and two sisters. One of them's a kid, the other... is not as friendly." The man noticed me stood by the van, but his attention was soon taken by Rick, who climbed out of his seat and stared at the man in wonder.

From further up into the camp, a boy, maybe just a little older than me, started shouting "Dad! Dad!" at the top of his voice. He ran down the hill, and Rick met him halfway, scooping him into his arms

"Carl. Oh!" A petite, dark haired woman joined them, clinging to Rick as if he was the only thing keeping her alive. I felt alone, left with an unconscious body who was likely to wake up angry. Rick seemed to sense my discomfort; he whispered into his wife's ear and spoke to Shane. "We have someone back there unconscious. Do any of you have a spare tent we could use to place her in?"

"She can sleep in the RV until she wakes up." An old man limped forward, "Do I want to know why she's unconscious?"

"Later. Shane, help me lift her. She ain't small." A hand rested on my shoulder. I turned my head to see Rick's wife leant down beside me.

"You look like you need cleaned up. Comon, I'll keep an eye on you while your sister is asleep." She guided me through the labyrinth of tents, some cleaner than others. People milled about, looking at me weirdly, before glancing away. I understood that; newcomers were always treated like they were bad people. When we had been with our old camp, Liz had looked at new people the same way, like she expected them to steal from us.

Rick's wife carried a washing bowl filled with brownish water, which she soaked a sponge in before smiling apologetically, "Sorry it looks dirty, I swear the only thing we've cleaned is Carl's face."

"Mooooom!" Rick's son, Carl, went bright red. Without another word, he ducked into their tent and didn't come out until after my face and hands had been cleaned. Lori took me to another woman, Carol, who gave me clothes that belonged to her daughter Sophia ("They might be a little big for you, Sophia's twelve. But we can't have you wondering around in that yellow dress and torn leggings, can we?"), though I refused to get changed in Carol's tent. Her husband, Ed, was big and scary, and had an odd look in his eyes when he spotted me. I hurried away with Lori, and almost felt sorry for his family.

"We eat around the campfire. That'll be later. Do you want to go play with the other kids?" Other kids. I hadn't seen kids my age for a while. The last kid I'd met who hadn't been family had been at the start; we'd sat on the Greyhound together, and she'd never made it off alive. Other than that, I'd only known my 12-year-old brother.

"No thank you ma'am."

"It's good to see some people kept their manners. God knows my son hasn't." Carl scowled at us as we giggled. His mother straightened up and left me in the tent, promising to bring back some books Dale had.

Carl sat cross legged in front of me. His eyebrows were furrowed, his tongue poked out the side of his mouth. "What?"

"Where are you from?"

"Arkansas."

"That's a long way away." He noted. "Ain't it, like, two states over?"

"Three if you travel by the bus." I corrected. "Ya gotta go through Tennessee to stop in Memphis, and then cross into Mississippi, and then Alabama, with a stop in Birmingham, and then get to Georgia."

"Wow. How long does that take?"

"About nine hours. And that don't even count the ride from Clarksville to Little Rock."

"Why did you make the trip?" He seemed genuinely interested, leaning forwards to hear more.

"My Aunt Ruth was injured. We were supposed to visit her at the Grady Memorial Hospital, but the bus never made it there."

"That sucks." Someone from outside shouted for Carl. He jumped up and waved through the flap of the tent. "I have to go, bye!"

"Bye." And I was left alone again.

_____________________________________________

"Disoriented. I guess that comes closest." Everyone surrounding the campfire hung onto every word Rick spoke. Liz was still out, kept behind the closed doors of the old man's RV. "Disoriented. Fear, confusion... all those things but... Disoriented comes closest."

"Words can be meagre things. Sometimes they fall short." Nobody had told me his name, but the old man who owned the RV was pretty smart. Every word he'd said so far sounded like something straight out of Liz's university books.

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever."

"Mom said you died." Rick's wife Lori dropped her head.

"She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it."

"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened."

"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell. "

"Yeah."

"And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun."

"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?"

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it."

"There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." The old man's words were kind of right, I supposed. I didn't know what paltry meant, but I was gonna assume it was something that wasn't positive.

By the other groups, Ed, Carol's husband, was adding another log to his fire. The flames jumped up and grew bigger, lighting more of the camp, and painting the trees orange. Rick's best friend cleared his throat and spoke to him firmly. "Hey, Ed, you wanna rethink that log?"

"It's cold, man." Was Ed's gruff reply.

"The cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?"

"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once." Rick's friend -Shane- got to his feet, and prowled towards Ed, leaning close enough to his face to make sure Ed heard him clearly.

"Hey, Ed... Are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?" The tiny gears in Ed's head seemed to be spinning as he thought about his next move. He glared at the cowering Carol and snapped

"Go on. Pull the damn thing out." She hesitated for a mere second. "Go on!" Carol wrenched the log out quickly and sat back down, squeezing the hand of her daughter, a small blonde girl.

"Hey, Carol, Sophia, how are y'all this evening?"

"Fine. We're just fine."

"Okay." Shane seemed nice. He'd helped carry Liz into the RV, and even left her a glass of water for when she woke up. I hoped that it would help calm her down when she finally got up. It probably wouldn't.

"I'm sorry about the fire."

"No no no. No apology needed. Y'all have a good night, okay?"

"Thank you."

"I appreciate the cooperation." Shane sat back down next to me and rolled his eyes in my direction. Ed must've been trouble before. I smiled and looked back down at my battered shoes as the conversation turned to the man we'd left back in Atlanta.

"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." I felt sad after hearing that the man had a brother. I'd have been upset if my sister was left behind.

"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me."

"I cuffed him. That makes it mine."

"Guys, it's not a competition." He seemed nervous about continuing. "I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy."

"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him. Which brings me to the other matter." Uh oh. I was ten, not stupid, I knew what the 'other matter' was before T-Dog said it out loud. "The girl. Liz."

"What about her?" People who hadn't been in Atlanta looked at T-Dog with something like excitement in their eyes. Lori looked towards me worriedly, as if she thought I might attack her.

"She's the one that got Morales killed." Morales' wife clapped her hand to her mouth, new tears flowing from her eyes. Everyone else looked into the fire, as if they expected to see him there.

"What do you mean 'got him killed'?" Shane's eyes darkened, teeth bared. T-Dog's hands were shaking as he continued.

"He could have made it. I know it. She pulled down the barricade before he got through. Ya'll saw her after. She didn't even look upset! Ya'll didn't even know he was dead until we were inside the van!"

"So she's dangerous?"

"Why the hell would you bring her here?" Voices, both hushed and loud, crossed back and forth over the campfire. I glanced to the RV, to see that the door was wide open, with nobody around it. Oh dear.

"Uhh... Rick."

"Not now kid."

"Rick, the RV-" Something dark slammed into T-Dog, pulling him to the ground. He yelped as the figure rained blows on him until Rick grabbed it by the underarms and pulled them back. Liz's face was splashed with light from the campfire. Shane appeared behind Rick and tried to secure Liz's flailing arms and legs. Something violent sparked in her eyes; she brought up her leg and kicked at Rick's shin with great accuracy. As his head came down she snapped hers up, making contact with his nose. Shane wasted time trying to see if Rick was okay and gained an elbow to the base of his throat. He gurgled and fell back as Liz pounced on T-Dog and continued beating him.

"Hey woah!"

"Stop it!" Finally, a bloody Rick managed to drag her off T-Dog once again, this time assisted by other members of the camp from the other campfire. She was dragged off spitting curses and shouting about "Tha' damn bastard hittin' me!". Only when the RV was shut was there silence.

"What the hell was that about?" Lori directed her question towards T-Dog.

"I knocked her out in the van." He spat blood onto the floor and held out a hand for Shane, who was gagging on the ground, clutching his throat. "That woman is dangerous."

_______________________________________________

** Liz POV **

The sun was glaring through the window of the RV when I woke up after the previous night's events. Admittedly, tackling T-Dog might have not been the best way to introduce myself, but I hadn't been too bothered about being friendly.

The bastard. Knocking me unconscious, and for what? I'd done the right thing; Morales' death was unavoidable given the events at the department store. Letting him pass may have cost the rest of us our lives.

And Merle. Granted, I'd let Morales die, but I'd have never left him there alive. Merle was an ass, but nobody deserved to die like that.

I took this time to look around the RV. Stealing would be stupid, but a quick look never hurt nobody. It was a medium sized RV, with two single beds, a kitchen, and a bathroom. I remembered being shoved against the counter by some guy after Rick had pulled me inside. There was food in the cupboards, I stole a biscuit and scoffed it quickly. I hadn't eaten since before meeting Rick.

The door to the RV opened; I dashed inside the bedroom and lay down, hoping they hadn't seen me raiding the cupboards. An old man strolled inside, wearing a floppy fisherman's hat. He carried a rifle, the only part of him that seemed intimidating. He smiled at me when he saw that I was awake, but I saw the wariness in his eyes. "Good morning."

"Is this the quarry?" His smile faded, and he sat down on the bed opposite me.

"Yes. You're very lucky you've been allowed to stay."

"I don' plan on staying long."

"Well, maybe so, but you should know, not many people are gonna like you out there, what with Morales..." He was unable to finish the sentence and choked up.

"Trust me, I don't give a shit about how they feel. I did what I had to do." He spoke again when I reached for the handle of door.

"Just... steer clear of Miranda and her kids. They've already lost their husband and father, I don't think seeing the person they believe caused his death will do them much good." I stepped outside and left the old man behind, feeling a little less sure of meeting the survivors.

Everywhere I turned, people stared at me. I avoided looking towards the far left of the camp, where a tanned woman sat with her two children, eyes piercing through my skull. I'd did what I had to.

"Hey!" Andrea jogged to me, trailing a blonde girl beside her. "How are you? Is your nose broken?"

"S'fine. What're ya'll up to?" The young blonde leaned around Andrea and chipped in,

"We were headed down to the clearing, you wanna join us?"

"Sure." I followed Andrea and who I assumed to be Andrea's sister down to the clearing, where the kids were playing together. My sister was nowhere in sight. "Where's..."

"Your sister doesn't want to play with the kids. Especially not out here. She'll be reading in Lori and Rick's tent." Several kids disappeared from the woods into a small clearing, where I heard them run further and further away. "We have a few kids here. Andrea likes to joke around and say I'm a kid too, but-" A scream. Then another. The woods carried the kids' cries straight to us. I went to pull out a weapon but found that my gun was missing from its holster, and the same with my knife. Shit.

"Mom!" A short, dark haired boy ran past me, and straight into the arms of a wiry brunette who was accompanied by Rick. Rick's family. I wanted to grin, and maybe share some of the happiness I felt for him; he moved past me to find the source of the screaming instead. Andrea, her sister and I followed.

"It's over there!" Soon, the woods were filled with an ebb and flow of children running back to camp, and men running to the clearing where the screaming had begun. Calls of "Mommy!" and "Mom!" filled the air.

I reached the clearing with Rick, and saw a walker feasting on the innards of a doe. It was so focused on devouring its meal, it didn't even notice us until more men filled the clearing.

The spook advanced slowly and was knocked back by Rick. And then again by the old man. And then another had a turn, and another. They beat the walker down, stabbing and poking at it until the old man had the sense to sever its head from its body. "It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain." A thin, weedy man added.

"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what. " Rustling in the trees had everyone on alert again; instead of a spook, a man broke through the leaves.

"Oh, Jesus." Aside from Rick and myself, the rest of the camp's faces fell. Andrea leaned around her sister and whispered to me.

"That's Daryl."

"Who?"

"Merle's brother." He was about 5'8" in height and sweat gleamed on his forehead and neck. Daryl Dixon took one look at the dead spook and began to swear violently. In one hand, he clutched a crossbow. The deer, I noticed, had two arrows jammed inside of its neck that were the same design as his own.

"Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this...filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!" With every word he spat, he delivered a sharp kick to the spook's body, rather like a child taking a temper tantrum. God knows what he'd be like upon learning his brother had been left behind.

The old man attempted to get Daryl Dixon to keep a level head. "Calm down, son. That's not helping."

"What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to "on golden pond"? I've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" It turned my stomach just thinking of eating meat that had been touched by the teeth of a dead person. A dark eyed man, Shane, I believe Rick had called him, voiced my concerns.

"I would not risk that."

"That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel... about a dozen or so. That'll have to do. " Light chomping of gums from the clearing floor caused Andrea's sister to jump. The walker's head had begun moving, its rotting jaws snapped at the feet of food it couldn't reach.

"Oh god." Andrea pulled her sister away, and they walked back up to the clearing together. Daryl Dixon scoffed at the head and aimed his crossbow.

"Come on, people. What the hell?" The dull, heavy thunk of a crossbow bolt in the spook's head was as satisfying as it was disgusting. "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?" And he stalked off to camp without another word.

Boy, I was not looking forward to the conversation that would come next.

_________________________________________________

There was no way we could explain Merle's situation to his brother without violence, according to Shane. Rick eventually convinced him to try and have a calm conversation with Daryl, but the doubt in his face was obvious. If Merle had been an ass, there was a chance his little brother could be just as bad.

"Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you."

"About what?" He froze like a deer that had been spotted in the wood, ready to leap at any moment. Around the campsite, people had also frozen in place. From the looks on their faces, I guessed that Daryl and his brother weren't very welcome in camp. I knew how that one felt.

"About Merle. There was a... There was a problem in Atlanta."

"He dead?"

"We're not sure."

"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl snapped.

"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Despite Shane's warning looks, Rick spoke to Daryl, who rounded on him like a cornered animal.

"Who are you?"

"Rick Grimes." Daryl scoffed again.

"Rick Grimes? You got something you want to tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."

"Well, that's one way to tell him." I murmured to the old man. He nodded and focused on his hat instead. Uncomfortable with confrontation; likely the peacekeeper of the group. Years studying psychology was pretty damn useful after all.

"Hold on. Let me process this." Good god, Daryl twisted his finger next to his head, as if trying to get Rick to imagine he was thinking. He was pissed, then. His attempts to mock Rick were hiding the tears I could clearly see in his eyes. "You're sayin' you handcuffed mah brother to a roof and you left him there?!" I flinched as he roared at Rick, who stayed surprisingly unfazed.

"Yeah." Of all the answers Rick could've given, that was the worst one. Daryl swung at Rick, who dodged and knocked him backwards onto his ass. The foul-mouthed southerner kneeled and snarled, wrenching a knife from a holster.

"Hey! Watch the knife!" His attempts to slash at Rick were careless and filled with emotion. He didn't even notice Shane sneak up behind him until his arms were around Daryl's neck, pulling him down into a choke hold.

"Okay. Okay."

"You'd best let me go!"

"Nah, I think it's better if I don't." Daryl quit struggling and huffed in submission.

"Choke hold's illegal." He grumbled.

"You can file a complaint." The laugh I hadn't even realised I was holding back burst out. Both Shane and Daryl looked at me, though for entirely different reasons. "Come on, man. I've already had to deal with this bullshit last night."

Rick got down real low and put his face in front of Daryl. "I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that? Do you think we can manage that?"

"Mmm. Yeah." Shane dropped the hold, and Daryl stood up, dusting himself off.

"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others." T-Dog entered Daryl's line of view and opened his mouth.

"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it."

"You couldn't pick it up?"

"Well, I dropped it in a drain."

"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."

"Well, maybe this will. Look, we chained the door to the roof... So the geeks couldn't get at him... With a padlock. It's gotta count for something."

Daryl glared at him sullenly, before swiping his hand through the air and breathing in deeply. Those tears had yet to fall; it was like he didn't want to appear weak. I understood that. "Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him."

"I'll take ya." He turned to look at me, eyes clouding with confusion.

"Who're you?"

"Not important. I said I'll take you to find Merle."

"I'm coming too." Rick announced. His wife frowned, storming into the RV. That made three of us. I had to go.

Anywhere was better than being here right now.


	4. Lost And Found

"So that's it, huh? You're just gonna walk off? Just to hell with everybody else?" Shane and Rick descended from the main campsite; they'd picked up the argument where Rick and Lori had apparently left off.

Daryl sat perched on a log beside me, cleaning blood off the arrow he'd shot into the deer's neck. His head was slightly turned. I wasn't the only one listening to the two men argue.

"I'm not saying to hell with anybody... Not you Shane..."

"Lori least of all. Tell her that."

"She knows."

"Well, look, I... I don't, okay, Rick? So could you just... Could you throw me a bone here, man? Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?"

"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl growled, looking up from his arrows to glower at Shane.

"No, I did. Douche bag's what I meant. Merle Dixon...The guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst... me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being." T-Dog had the decency to look ashamed, he developed a sudden interest in his shoes.

Lori sided with Shane. "So you, her and Daryl, that's your big plan?"

"'Her' has a name." She frowned again, a common facial expression for her, it seemed. Rick ignored my comment and turned around to Glenn with pleading eyes.

"Oh, come on."

"You know the way. You've been there before... In and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask... I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." Glenn nodded glumly.

Shane snorted. "That's just great. Now you're gonna risk four people, huh?"

"Five." T-Dog added. Daryl and I sighed simultaneously. I'd had enough of the man, every time he looked at me, it was with an intense loathing; I was to blame for Morales' death no matter how many times I told him that I'd had no choice. I did what I had to do.

"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" Daryl threw the crossbow over his shoulder and scowled at T-Dog.

"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?"

"Why you?"

"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language."

"That's five." The old man pointed out.

"It's not just five." Shane snapped. "You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. Come on, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp. They already got Morales."

"Wait a minute. You mean to tell me he's dead?" Daryl looked around in disbelief. "Damn, he weren't all that bad."

"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." Guns? And then it dawned on me. Rick's bag.

"Right, the guns."

"Wait. What guns?"

"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up."

"Ammo?"

"700 rounds, assorted."

Lori and her son didn't seem as impressed with the gun count, surprise surprise. "You went through hell to find us. You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?"

"Dad, I don't want you to go."

"To hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in. Tell me. Make me understand."

"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy. Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him."

"What's stopping you?"

"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer."

"Those our walkies?"

"Yeah."

"So use the CB. What's wrong with that?" Andrea asked.

"The CB's fine. It's the walkies that suck to crap... Date back to the '70s, don't match any other bandwidth... Not even the scanners in our cars."

"I need that bag. Okay?"

"All right." Lori finally relented, and Rick joined Daryl and I in walking to the van. He turned to me and looked me up and down.

"What?"

"I'm still tryin' to figure out how you managed to knock two police officers to the ground in less than a minute. That move you pulled- were you taught it?"

"Somethin' like that. Mah old man always said that if two people grab you from behind, you should hit the first one as hard as you can. Then, when the other is paying more attention to his friend than you, you should jab him hard in the throat."

"The attack and distract tactic."

"If that's what you call it." He strolled towards the old man and the weedy guy by the RV, where T-Dog was already waiting. I climbed into the back of the truck with Daryl and Glenn, just as Josie barrelled into my side. "Oomph!"

"Don't go." She clung tightly to my waist, nuzzled into my stomach.

"I gotta."

"Then take me with you!"

"No."

"Please!"

"No. It's safer if you're here instead. I don't want you in the city unless it's absolutely necessary. Hey, hey hey." I lowered myself to her level and cradled her face between my hands. "I'm comin' back. You know I am." I allowed her one last hug, then let her go. I had to come back now. One last bit of help for this group and then I was taking her and leaving. It'd be a long drive, but we'd get back to Arkansas eventually.

Daryl watched me while I made myself comfortable in the back of the truck; I'd reclaimed my weapons, and my bow sat proudly next to me, my prize possession. "What? I got something on mah nose or something?"

"Didn't realise you had a kid."

"I don't."

"Sister?"

"Yup. seventeen-year difference." He 'hmf'ed and swung himself into the front seats, pressing his foot into the car horn. Rick and T-Dog jumped and spun to face the truck.

"Come on, let's go!" T-Dog jumped inside and sat next to Glenn and Daryl- and the furthest away from me. Daryl moved to the floor opposite T-Dog and continued to glower at him. "This don't make us any friendlier than we were before."

"What the hell is Rick doing?" I peered around the truck doors and answered Glenn's question.

"Talkin' to his friend. Nevermind, he's coming over." The truck door slammed shut as Rick started the engine. The last thing I saw before I closed the van were the crestfallen faces of the other survivors, unsure of whether we would be back. I had every reason to believe that if I was lost, they wouldn't be too concerned.

_________________________________________

Awkward silence was the only thing I could hear. We'd exited the quarry half an hour back; the city couldn't be too far away. I wondered which way we'd be getting to the rooftop. My stomach crushed itself into nothing when I realised the easiest way to get to Merle was through the department store- and past the barricade.

"He'd better be okay." Daryl's eyes bore into T-Dog, who rolled his eyes and replied rather smugly.

"It's my only word on the matter. I told you the geeks can't get at him. The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us." A thought popped into my head. A horrible, horrible thought.

"What about the other door?"

"What?"

"The roof door leading to the office building. We didn't block that." T-Dog's face drained of blood. If he could have sank lower into the floor, I fully believed he would have.

Whatever colour that had left T-Dog had flooded into Daryl instead. He balled his hands into fists and smacked the side of the truck. Glenn mumbled "Oh no" over and over again. "T, we left the office doors open. Any walker could just stroll in."

"Shit. Rick, drive a lil faster, won'tcha?"

"I don't think that's a good idea. I'd rather not crash into anything." T-Dog put his head in his hands and groaned to himself. I decided that retying my hair was the most important thing I could do right now. It was easier to avoid looking at Daryl this way. Daryl who was shaking and had a knife strapped to his waist.

Glenn's small voice caught my attention once he used my full name. "Hey, Elizabeth-"

"Liz."

"Sorry. What's that behind your ear." Great. Everyone had turned to look at me. I seriously considered letting my hair down again. "It is a tattoo?" I guess I had no choice. I shifted around to show the four curious men the tattoo behind my left ear; I'd gotten the three black bird silhouettes when I was twenty-three.

"Yeah."

"It's cool."

"Thanks."

"Why'd ya get it?" Daryl's questioned gruffly. It was the first time he'd been willing to talk about anything except Merle. Chose a real nice time to join in.

"Do I need a reason? Maybe I just liked the tattoo." To my surprise, he shook his head.

"Nah. S'behind ya ear. Most people get a tattoo that people will see, ya didn't. Somethin' behind the ear is personal." I almost forgot how to speak for what felt like hours. Smart bastard.

'Well, Daryl Dixon' I pursed my lips, and turned away. He waited for an answer he wasn't getting. 'Guess you're smarter than people give you credit for'.

The truck stopped just outside of the city limits, where it would be left until we got back. It was too dangerous to drive a truck into the middle of walker-central, we'd be swarmed before we stepped outside.

T-Dog carried the bolt cutters with him; he had yet to gain the colour in his face again. I didn't know what would be worse: finding Merle alive and pissed, or finding his remains still chained to the pipe, maybe dead, maybe undead. Either, at least one of us were going to hate today.

Rick spoke for the first time since we left. We cut through a fence and entered the official area of the city. "Merle first or guns?"

"Merle! We ain't even having this conversation."

"We are."

"Rick, we're talkin' about leaving a human being while ya grab your bag. I thought cops prioritised human life?" Rick's jaw twitched, his eyes flitting between Daryl and myself. I may not have liked Merle -he was the poster boy of the hick community: racist, sexist, drug taking and an all-around asshole- but Merle Dixon was still a person. We couldn't just leave him there for a bag of guns, no matter how many people would rather have the weapons.

Rick swallowed and looked at Glenn. "You know the geography. It's your call."

"Merle's closest. The guns would mean doubling back. Merle first." Rick accepted this, and he an T-Dog led the way into the city.

We encountered very few spooks, it seemed they had all disappeared. Paranoia kicked in, and I had an arrow nocked the entire route, pointing the bow into the darkest corners or alleyways, keeping my eye out for lurkers. For a moment, I thought I saw a figure hiding down an alleyway, but they disappeared when I looked away to tell Rick. Disappearing figures usually weren't spooks; they were usually living people.

The department store was empty from the outside view. I could see T-Dog was watching me from the corner of my eye. He was waiting for me to acknowledge what we were walking into. The chances of finding Morales' body was high.

Daryl stepped through the broken glass first and signalled for us to crouch down. Walkers.

Ahead, there was a woman swaying on the spot, her hands chewed to the bone. Faint snarls were audible from just next to the barrier. I prayed it was just random walkers.

The female spook turned and growled at Daryl as he quickly approached her. "Damn. You are one ugly skank." Thunk! She fell, his crossbow bolt lodged in her forehead.

"Nice one." I crept behind the counters and stepped over the fallen jewellery stand as quietly as possible. Behind me, T-Dog choked up. I felt guilt that I wasn't doing the same.

Three walkers were crouched over the bloody and shredded remains of Morales. I could see his shirt hanging off the bones of his arms and shoulders. Nothing else remained. With the number of walkers that had been through here, they'd jumped on him like vultures, taking away everything until all that was left was the inedible parts.

Daryl landed a bolt into the head of one, and Rick took care of the other two with a hatchet. While everyone else lingered by the fallen stand, I moved towards the remains of Morales.

Glenn pulled T-Dog back as I ripped the remains of the barricade down, pulling them on top of Morales' corpse. A path was cleared. Rick, Glenn and T-Dog were paler than ever, and looked sick. Disgust shone in their eyes. "We need to go. I ain't wastin' time mourning the dead. We gotta find a man who's livin'." Daryl was the first to move, running up the stairs shouting for his brother. I was almost out of breath and wheezing by the time I reached the top. Had they always been that long?

"Merle! Merle!" T-Dog pushed the bolt cutters through the door and snapped the padlock on the other side, and the chain for good measure. Daryl wasted no time; he kicked the door wide open and rushed down to the pipes where Rick had cuffed Merle.

Had. Because I couldn't see no Merle from where I was stood.

"No! No!"

"Oh Jesus." I could've thrown up. I wanted to throw up. Liquids sloshed around my stomach. My eyes refused to believe what I was seeing.

Lying there, on the ground, still and fresh, was Merle's severed hand.

_________________________________________

Daryl cried out in anger, and rounded on T-Dog, crossbow aimed at his face. I stepped forward, ready to help T-Dog, but a part of me wanted to hold back. He'd done nothing but distrust me and look at me like I was filth.

Rick, luckily, got there first. His gun was pressed to Daryl's head in seconds, finger on trigger. "I won't hesitate. I don't care if every walker in the city hears it." From the coldness in his voice, I knew he was serious. His eyes were hard and icy, his knuckles white from clenching the gun hard.

Daryl, realising he was serious, lowered the crossbow. T-Dog breathed heavily, muttering prayers to the sky. Daryl's mood shifted from anger like a calming sea. He wiped his eyes as he turned back to Merle's severed hand and plucked it from the ground by the fingers. Blood and fluids dripped from the edges of the hand. My stomach flopped over, and I had to lean over the side of the roof, gagging. I vomited and closed my eyes to avoid seeing it hit the floor.

"Jesus. Yuck." Glenn veered out of my path as I wiped dribble from my lips. Yuck indeed.

"You got a do-rag or something?" Daryl mumbled, keeping his eyes down. T-Dog handed him a blue cloth, and Daryl wrapped the hand in it; it was then shoved into a grimacing Glenn's backpack. "I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs. Ain't that a bitch. He must have used a tourniquet... maybe his belt. Be much more blood if he didn't." He'd hacked through his own hand. I suddenly felt the urge to vomit again.

A trail of blood lead through to the opposite roof door. It had yet to dry up properly, and still shone in the sunlight. He hadn't been gone long, with the warm weather, he had to have started cutting maybe just before we left the campsite. I voiced this, much to Daryl's anger. "Maybe if we'd just left earlier like I said..."

"Daryl..."

"Don't Daryl me! Screw all ya'll, mah brother got left behind, and ya'll did nothin'" He slammed open the door and took the stairs two at a time "Merle? You in here? Merle!"

"We're not alone here. Remember?" Rick warned.

"Screw that. He could be bleeding out." Daryl stepped over the bodies of walkers we had previously killed when clearing out the building.

One of the doors had been opened in the hall, a walker lay on the floor with its head smashed open. Its blood was still oozing. "In here." The room was a small kitchen space for workers, and the first thing I noticed was an iron resting on top of a stove, with something stuck to the underside.

I placed my hand just above the stove top. Still hot. Rick cleared his throat behind me; I swallowed and told him what I thought. "He used this. Not long ago either. Iron's still hot too."

"What's that burned stuff?" There was browning flakes all over the stove top, accompanied with small pools of blood here and there. Rick picked a piece up and winced.

"Skin. He cauterized the stump." Uck. I had to hand it to him, I'd have just died instead.

"Told you he was tough. Nobody can kill Merle but Merle."

"Damn, I'm impressed." Daryl's mouth twitched as I continued. "Disgusted but impressed."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Rick led the way down the hall and further into uncharted territory. Glass shards littered the floor beside a broken window, though most of the glass lay outside on the fire escape. More blood was on the carpet; tiny, bright red droplets that were fresh, like they'd been there for only half an hour, maybe less. They bled out of the window, dripping from the iron grate of the fire escape onto the streets.

"Yeah? Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap." Daryl pointed to the outside. Glenn spluttered a response.

"He left the building? Why the hell would he do that?"

"Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's got to do. Surviving."

"You call that surviving?" T-Dog asked cynically. "Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?"

"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks." My boots became the central focus of my attention. "You couldn't kill him. Ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard."

"What about 1,000 dead dumb bastards?" Rick snapped. "Different story?"

"Why don't you take a tally? Do what you want. I'm gonna go get him." Stupidly, Daryl tried to make his way through the broken window; Rick pulled him by his shoulder and lightly moved him away from the window. Daryl flinched back and slapped the man's hand away. "Get your hands off me! You can't stop me."

"I don't blame you. He's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel. He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head." Daryl knew he was right. He chewed on his lip and wiped sweat from his brow, seriously considering Rick's words.

"I could do that."

"Only if we get those guns first." T-Dog said. "I'm not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?"

________________________________________

**Josie POV**

Carol and her daughter were very kind to me. It was nice. Carl and his mom were sat across from us, waiting to see what Andrea and Amy were bringing back from their fishing trip. Dale had allowed them to use his equipment, and I hoped they would be able to catch something nice to eat. All I'd eaten today was peanut butter smeared on hard crackers.

"Josie, are you thirsty? Or maybe tired?" Carol was a nice lady, even if her husband was nasty. Earlier today, Ed had hit Carol, and I'd been happy to hear that Shane had beaten him to within an inch of his life. I could imagine Liz doing something like that.

"No thank you ma'am."

Two blonde women appeared from down the slope, carrying strings full of fish. Andrea and Amy. They were laughing with each other despite red rimmed eyes, swinging the fish back and forth.

"Mom, look. Look at all the fish." Carl breathed out, reaching to poke one with his finger. Lori pulled him back and twisted her face as Amy swung her line dangerously close to her. "Whoa."

"Yeah, whoa. Where did you two learn to do that?"

"Our dad."

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Carl was wide eyed in awe, watching the light bounce off fish scales as they swayed with the breeze. Louis, Morales' son, looked like he wanted to ask too, but his mother clutched him tightly and hushed him.

"Sure. I'll teach you all about nail knots and stuff. If that's okay." Amy glanced at Lori nervously. She just laughed instead, finally reaching out one bony finger to prod a fish.

"You won't catch me arguing." Dale, the old man, appeared behind Andrea's shoulder; he looked upset about something, and his hat was even off.

"Hey, Dale. When's the last time you oiled those line reels? They are a disgrace." Andrea's joke failed to make Dale smile. Instead, he started talking about something else.

"I, uh, I don't want to alarm anyone, but we may have a bit of a problem." The first thing that came to my mind was walkers. I was ready to leap up and help, whether they wanted it or not. Shane darted up from the steps of the RV and spoke, massaging his bruised hand.

"What kind of problem we got Dale? Walkers?" Worried mumbles erupted from the surrounding survivors. Whispers of 'just like Morales' and 'they shouldn't be this far up' were things I heard a lot of. I felt bad for Morales' family. I'd dragged that walker with me, if I'd just tried to kill it there and then... I'd gotten scared. I hadn't gotten that scared in a while, I was used to Liz looking out for me.

"No, no walkers." Dale looked up at the large hill worriedly. "It's Jim. He's been diggin' for god knows how long now. I have to say, Shane, I'm getting a little worried about him."

"Awright, lead the way." Carol gently pushed my shoulder and lead Sophia and I up with the others. Morales' family stayed behind.

The weedy man I'd seen yesterday walking around was stood on the hill; he held a shovel and was digging relentlessly. Several large holes had already been made. Shane held up his hand to stop everyone at the end of the hill, and then spoke to Jim softly. "Hey, Jim. Jim, why don't you hold up, all right? Just give me a second here, please."

"What do you want?"

"We're all just a little concerned, that's all."

"So?" Jim stabbed the ground and left the shovel buried in the earth.

"So why are you digging? Are you heading to China, Jim?" In his state of mind, Jim didn't listen to the joke.

"What does it matter? I'm not hurting anyone."

"Yeah, except maybe yourself. It's a hundred degrees today. You can't keep this up."

"Sure I can. Watch me."

"Jim, they're not gonna say it so I will. You're scaring people. You're scaring my son and Carol's daughter." Carl and Sophia said nothing, but when a small, sweaty hand gripped mine, I decided to believe Lori.

"They got nothing to be scared of. I mean, what the hell, people? I'm out here by myself. Why don't you all just go and leave me the hell alone?"

"We think that you need to take a break, okay? Why don't you go and get yourself in the shade? Some food maybe. I'll tell you what... maybe in a little bit I'll come out here and help you myself. Jim, just tell me what it's about. Why don't you just go ahead and give me that shovel?" Shane reached for Jim's shovel; Jim swiped it away from him as if Shane had tried to take his most prized possession.

He stumbled and nearly fell into one of the holes, glaring at Shane through narrowed eyes.

"Or what?"

"There is no or what. I'm asking you. I'm coming to you and I'm asking you, please. I don't want to have to take it from you."

"And if I don't, then what? Then you're gonna beat my face in like Ed Peletier, aren't you?" Sophia whimpered. "Y'all seen his face, huh? What's left of it. See, now that's what happens when someone crosses you."

"That was different, Jim."

"You weren't there. Ed was out of control. He was hurting his wife."

"That is their marriage. That is not his. He is not judge and jury. Who voted you king boss, huh?"

"Jim, I'm not here to argue with you, all right? Just give me the shovel, okay?" No matter what Shane said, Jim didn't listen. He backed away, holding the shovel in front of him like a weapon.

"No, no, no."

" Just give me the... Jim!" The shovel came down on Shane's head, and he had to grab the hilt to avoid being hit with it. Jim tried to push Shane, but only ended up pinned on the floor. "Okay, shh shh."

"You got no right!"

"Stop. Shh."

"You got no right!"

"Jim, just stop it. Hey hey hey hey."

"Don't!"

"Jim. Jim, nobody's gonna hurt you. You hear me? Shh. Jim, nobody is gonna hurt you, okay?" Jim sniffled, and tears rolled down his cheeks.

"That's a lie. That's the biggest lie there is. I told that to my wife and my two boys. I said it 100 times. It didn't matter. They came out of nowhere. There were dozens of 'em. Just pulled 'em right out of my hands. You know, the only reason I got away was 'cause the dead were too busy eating my family."

_________________________________________

**Liz POV**

Glenn threw a large map onto the desk that we were crowding around. His plan was stupid. Real stupid. And I wasn't the only one who thought so.

"You're not doing this alone." Rick said.

"Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much." Daryl agreed, leaning against the desk and tracing the routes with his finger. Glenn swallowed and tried to reason with them.

"It's a good idea, okay, if you just hear me out. If we go out there in a group, we're slow, drawing attention. If I'm alone, I can move fast." He pulled up a box and placed it on the map, right where he'd first made contact with Rick and I. "Look. That's the tank, five blocks from where we are now." Glenn placed more things on the map. "That's the bag of guns. Here's the alley I dragged you into when we first met. That's where Daryl, Liz and I will go."

"Why me?" Daryl asked. I was fine with that, as long as I wasn't put into a group with T-Dog. The relief on his face told me he felt the same.

"Your crossbow and her bow are quieter than Rick's gun. While Daryl and Liz wait here in the alley, I run up the street, grab the bag."

"You got us elsewhere?"

"You and T-Dog, right. You'll be in this alley here."

"Two blocks away? Why?"

"I may not be able to come back the same way. Walkers might cut me off. If that happens, I won't go back to Daryl. I'll go forward instead, all the way around to that alley where you guys are. Whichever direction I go, I got you in both places to cover me. Afterwards, we'll all meet back here." Now that it had been explained, Glenn's plan actually made sense. I locked eyes with Rick, and he nodded in silent agreement. As far as plans went, I couldn't see any way it could get most of us killed.

"Hey, kid, what'd you do before all this?" Glenn looked at Daryl and replied,

"Delivered pizzas. Why?"

"Nothin'" I hoisted my backpack over my shoulders, used to the weight of the supplies I carried inside it. The majority was food and ammo, though I'd also stashed a hatchet in their just in case.

Rick and T-Dog veered off from our course, and went to their allocated area, while Glenn, Daryl and I swerved into the grimy alleyway. Two large trash skips made for a perfect hiding spot; Daryl crouched in one end, and I took the other. Glenn peered out from the middle to check if the street was clear.

"You got some balls for a Chinaman." Daryl remarked.

Glenn frowned and turned his head. "I'm Korean."

"Whatever."

Once Glenn was out of sight, Daryl became silent, choosing to ignore me. "Hey, Daryl."

"What?"

"You were right by the way."

"Bout what?" He answered gruffly.

"The tattoo. It is personal. So congrats, Sherlock." The faint ghost of a smile danced across his face; footsteps from the far end of the alley cancelled the humour. They didn't sound like walkers, there was none of the shuffling or groans that usually accompanied a spook.

Daryl leapt to his feet before I could, aiming the crossbow directly at the head of some kid. He could have only been about nineteen, maybe younger. His eyes widened when he finally realised two weapons were being pointed at him by two very real people. "Whoa, don't shoot me! What do you want?"

"I'm looking for my brother. He's hurt real bad. You seen him?"

"Ayúdame!" My Spanish was real rough, given that I'd been twelve when I'd last learned it, but I knew enough to understand what the kid was saying. There were others, here, in the area. And Glenn was out there with no way of knowing.

"Shut up! You're gonna bring the geeks down on us. Answer me." The kid just continued to call for help. From behind the fence, walkers were growing in numbers. Still, the little punk cried out.

"Ayúdame! Ayúdame! Ayúdame!" Daryl snapped, knocking the kid to the ground and aiming a well-placed kick.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw two burly men sprint around the corner. Before I had a chance to warn Daryl, they bowled him over, kicking him repeatedly. I tried to pull the smaller guy off of him, but all I got was a blow to the face. Burning pain exploded in my jaw, if he'd broken my jaw I wouldn't be surprised.

Of course, Glenn arrived with the bag and Rick's hat just then. The bigger man turned around and shouted to his friends. "That's it. That's the bag, Vato. Take it! Take it!" The small guy ran for the gate, but I managed to grab his legs and pull him down. His bigger friend leapt over him, and forced a yelling Glenn into the car. The bag flew against the wall and lay abandoned.

"Get off me! Get off me! Daryl! Daryl!" Glenn's face disappeared behind a door as it slammed shut. The smaller guy held me against the wall with one hand after recovering, the do rag around his head had fallen around his neck.

I was able to wrestle my knife out of its leg strap. I couldn't hesitate, I had to do what I had to do.

I thrust the knife up, quick and fast. His neck opened up under its sharp blade, he gurgled, eyes wide. I pulled the knife sideways; in the background, Rick and T-Dog had stopped Daryl from beating the kid and were trying to restrain him.

Thick hot blood poured over my hands and chest, slipping under my tank top. Disgusting. I pulled the knife out and left him to spasm on the floor, his hands useless to stop the blood flow.

"Jorge! You little puta, you've killed him!" The kid was screeching at the top of his lungs. The number of walkers flocking to the gates increased, the entire chain link fence was shaking.

"They took Glenn. That little bastard and his little bastard homie friends. I'm gonna stomp your ass!" Daryl wasn't too fazed about the dead man spilling blood on the floor behind me. My throat felt like it was on fire, and I had to cough violently. There would be a red mark around my neck if I looking into a mirror.

Rick and T-Dog looked at me like I was a different person. Then, without a word, Rick gripped the kid and dragged him away, T-Dog right behind him.

Daryl looked to me, taking note of my bloodied lips from scraping the floor, and the bruise forming on my face, before commenting. "Comon. We're gettin' Glenn back."


	5. Dealbreaker

The bag of guns lay on the desk behind us, a reminder of why Glenn had been taken. In the corner, Daryl and T-Dog were keeping a close eye on the kid.

I winced as Rick tried his hardest to dig gravel out of the scrape on my lip. He hadn't said a single word to me since he'd seen me cut open the throat of the kid's friend. I hadn't had a choice. His hands had been pressed around my neck, squeezing. My throat still hurt, I'd spent most of my time wheezing my way back to the building.

Rick finally got the majority of the gravel out of my lip and turned to the little bastard that had technically caused all this. "Those men you were with, we need to know where they went."

"I ain't telling you nothing." The kid spat at Rick's feet and smirked.

"Jesus, man. What the hell happened back there?"

"I told you, this little turd and his douche bag friends came out of nowhere and jumped us." Daryl glared at the kid.

"You're the one who jumped me, puto, screaming about trying to find his brother like it's my damn fault."

"They took Glenn. Could have taken Merle too." Daryl reasoned. The kid snorted and began to chuckle.

"Merle? What kind of hick name is that? I wouldn't name my dog Merle." The kid's arrogance came to an end when Daryl, angry and clearly offended, launched himself at the kid, kicking out and aiming towards the kid's head.

"Damn it, Daryl. Back off." Daryl snatched the do rag from the table and withdrew Merle's hand. The kid's tear streaked face was filled with curiosity, which turned to horror after Daryl threw the hand into his lap.

"Want to see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?" The kid began to yelp, scrambling away from the hand; Daryl advanced on him and pinned him down. "Start with the feet this time."

"Hey!" Rick dragged Daryl yet again from the boy, tossing him aside so he could address the kid himself. "The men you were with took our friend. All we want to do is talk to them, see if we can work something out."

"No way. That puta killed Jorge, I ain't helping you with shit." I felt numb. Rick's face told me everything I needed to know: he was angry with me too. I had no doubt that he'd likely chew me out for it later, maybe even try to kick me out of the group. Good thing Josie and I would be leaving anyway. I'd came with Rick and Daryl to find Merle because I felt like I owed them that much. After this, I'd already planned our exit. If I played along, maybe they'd let us take a few guns and a car.

"Listen, kid." His head snapped around to stare at me; fear shone through his features. It was understandable, he'd just witnessed me open up his friend's throat. "Your friends have already lost one person, you wanna make it two?"

"Liz..."

"Don't, Rick. Kid, you got a chance to get back to your group. Way I see it, your friend Jorge tried to kill me first, it was self-defence."

"You lying-"

"Shut up. Now, we could sit 'round here, and maybe you don't get fed to walkers. Or, you could take us to your friends, and maybe you walk away alive. Your choice."

_________________________________________

"It's just through here." The kid tilted his head towards a chain link fence that lead to a large building. Someone strolled across the rooftop, holding a large gun.

"You sure you're up for this?" Rick asked T-Dog. T-Dog swallowed and held up his gun, nodding reluctantly.

"Yeah."

"Okay." T-Dog walked off to go do his part; Rick made himself busy cutting open the fence with the bolt cutters. The kid cursed and hissed as his shirt and arms were scratched and caught on the fence.

"One wrong move, you get an arrow in the ass." Daryl warned him, shoving the crossbow into his back to force the kid to walk. "Just so you know."

"G's gonna take that arrow out of my ass and shove it up yours. Just so you know."

"G?"

"Guillermo. He's the man here."

"Okay then. Let's go see Guillermo."

The door swung open after a few minutes of waiting; nine men stalked out, the majority of them burly and carrying guns. The man in the middle of them was neither burly or carrying a weapon. Unlike the rest, however, he had an air of arrogance. I assumed that this was Guillermo. His eyes darted between Rick, Daryl and me; they lingered on my blood-stained hands for a moment before he spoke to the kid. "You okay, little man?"

"They're gonna cut off my feet, carnal."

"Cops do that?"

"Not him. This redneck puto here. He cut off some dude's hand, man. He showed it to me." The kid continued to spill everything to his boss. "And this puta killed Jorge man! Bitch cut his throat for no reason!"

"Keep talkin', I'll do the same thing now." Guillermo held his hand up his hand to stop his men from raising their weapons towards Daryl and me. The only way to describe Rick's expression was exasperated.

"Hey, that's that Vato right there, homes. He shot me in the ass with an arrow. What's up, homes, huh?"

"Chill, ese, chill. Chill. This true? He wants Miguelito's feet? That's pretty sick, man. And that's forgetting that your other friend killed mine."

"We were hoping more for a calm discussion." Rick squared his jaw as Guillermo laughed.

"Those hillbillies jump Felipe's little cousin, beat on him, one threatens to cut off his feet, the other kills one of my men. Felipe gets an arrow in the ass and you want a calm discussion? You fascinate me."

"Heat of the moment. Mistakes were made on both sides."

"My friend is dead."

"And I am sorry that he died. Killin' people is not something I condone." He wasn't looking at Guillermo when he said it, he stared straight at me with something alien in his eyes.

"Who're they to you anyway? You don't look related."

"They're in our group, more or less. I'm sure you have a few like them."

"You got my brother in there?" Daryl interrupted.

"Sorry, we're fresh out of white boys. But I've got Asian. You interested?"

"I have one of yours, you have one of mine. Sounds like an even trade."

"Don't sound even to me." The kid whined and pleaded with Guillermo to try and change his answer.

"G. Come on, man." Guillermo ignored the kid and continued to talk to Rick.

"My people got attacked. My man died out there. Where's the compensation for their pain and suffering? More to the point, where's my bag of guns?"

"Guns?"

"The bag Miguel saw in the street. The bag Felipe and Jorge were going back to get. That bag of guns."

"You're mistaken."

"I don't think so."

"About it being yours. It's my bag of guns."

"The bag was in the street. Anybody could come around and say it was theirs. I'm supposed to take your word? What's to stop my people from unloading on you right here and now and I take what's mine?" I pulled the kid directly in front of me. If he shot now, he'd hit the kid.

"You could do that." Rick agreed. Guillermo's confusion turned to a form of terror, as he spotted T-Dog on the roof, sniper rifle aimed at his head. The red dot glinted in Guillermo's eye. "Or not."

Guillermo swallowed, and then regained his confidence. "Oye."

Two men appeared on the roof, flanking another smaller man with a bag over his head. They tore off the bag to reveal a terrified Glenn. The closer they got to the edge of the roof, the more nervous I got. I had to think of something fast.

"I see two options. You come back with Miguel and my bag of guns, everybody walks. Or you come back locked and loaded, we'll see which side spills more blood." Guillermo and his group turned to leave, I had to do something. Now.

"Wait." He turned around and looked at me. "We'll come back in an hour, with the kid and your bag."

"Liz, what the hell-"

"Shush. We'll make the trade."

_________________________________________

"You're just gonna give up an entire bag of guns. Are ya'll crazy?" Daryl started the minute we got back to the building. I ignored him. A plan was forming in my mind. I knew what I could do, it was just a matter of getting it to work. And getting everyone to agree.

"T-Dog, watch the kid. I need to talk to Rick and Daryl." I swung the heavy bag over my shoulder as we headed into the other room. Daryl, obviously pissed about the idea of giving the guns away, carried on talking.

"Them guns are worth more than gold. Gold won't protect your family or put food on the table. You're gonna give that up for that kid?"

"No. We're not."

"But you said-"

"I said I'd give him the kid and the bag, I never said the guns would be inside." Rick and Daryl exchanged looks; they thought I was crazy. If this didn't work, I just might be.

"How are you gonna get Glenn back with an empty bag."

"It ain't gonna be empty. I need another large bag, I'm sure we can find one. And pipes. We need pipes."

"Pipes, what the hell are-" Realisation dawned on Rick, he grinned. "Ah."

"What if he sees them before we leave?" Daryl asked.

"We ain't gonna hang around. We swap Glenn for the kid and the bag and then we leave. We don't even have to enter the property. Just cut the fence a little more and we can trade through." Rick jumped up and began searching the room. Daryl took a different task, standing on the tables and pulling down the lino ceiling squares. Inside were pipes of all sizes. Perfect.

"Found a bag." Rick dropped it on the desk. "So we put the guns in this one."

"Not yet. You two keep pulling down pipes. I wanna show the kid the guns, make sure he believes that's what we're trading."

The kid was staring down the barrel of T-Dog's gun when I walked back inside. I leaned down next to him and unzipped the bag of guns. His eyes widened at the sight of the large arsenal. "These look okay for your group?"

"You're smart. Thought you were gonna be stupid and try to go in there shooting up the place. G would've killed you all."

"Okay kid, whatever. We're packing up our stuff in the other room, then we're headin' back to your group." I returned to the two men, who had a hefty collection of pipes piled up. "We need them to weigh about the same." I dumped the guns into the spare bag and began to stuff pipes of different sizes into the 'gun bag'. Rick held both after they were filled and declared them roughly the same weight.

"Ya'll really think this will work?"

"I'm not sure. But we gotta try. If it gets us our guns and Glenn, I'm willing to." We walked back out; Rick carried the fake guns, and Daryl carried the real ones.

"Comon kid. We're off to make a deal."

_________________________________________

We arrived early. To make sure we could fit both Glenn and the kid through the fence at the same time, we cut further along. It was decided that the kid would carry the fake guns to Guillermo, giving us time to run as far away as possible before the group figured out they didn't have guns.

The doors open not long after. Guillermo swaggered out with Glenn, a large smirk plastered on his face. "What, you're not going to come inside."

"Trade through the fence. It's not fair if we're on your territory. You could stop us from leavin'."

"You make a good case niña." He tossed Glenn to the man Daryl had shot. "Go on. You give us Miguel and the guns at the same time we give you the Asian boy?"

"Sounds good."

"Wait." The gang member stopped moving and held Glenn where he was. "How do we know all of my guns are in there." Rick's breathing was shallow and ragged. I kept a straight face, someone had to stay calm. I could still work this.

"Your boy over here saw the inside of the bag just before we left. He'll tell you." Guillermo turned to the kid.

"Miguel?"

"S'true G. There's a whole load of guns in there. We got enough for everyone." Guillermo's eyes lit up.

"Then lets trade niña."

The gang member brought Glenn to the fence. Rick handed the kid the 'guns' and pushed him gently through the fence. Glenn was shoved a little more violently, but he was with us, safe and unharmed. Guillermo smiled brightly upon seeing the kid, and even seemed to give us a kind smile.

We turned and walked as fast as possible, finally breaking into a sprint when we were out of view. It was only when we left the city limits and were walking towards the truck that I finally began to laugh. We'd made it out unharmed, with both the guns and Glenn.

Rick and Daryl soon joined in, we had to stop to try and contain ourselves. Guillermo and his gang were probably out for blood now; they would have opened the bag by now and found pipes instead.

Glenn and T-Dog, who hadn't been told the plan due to watching the kid, looked at us like we were insane. Tired of waiting, T-Dog burst out "The hell ya'll laughing at? We just gave away all our guns!"

"No... no we didn't."

"What? But I saw-" Daryl unzipped the bag and showed T-Dog the guns. He sighed with relief and then barked out a laugh of his own. "Ya'll managed to actually trick those a-holes?"

"Wait, guys, they're not bad people." We looked at Glenn. He seemed shocked at himself, but still went on. "They're protecting an old person's home. They needed guns!" Rick and T-Dog didn't look so sure of themselves now. Rick twisted his hands and shifted from one foot to another.

"So what?" I spat. "Old people ain't long for this world. We got kids at camp, we can't afford to give away freebies to a bunch of pensioners who're gonna die in a couple of weeks anyway."

"But-"

"No. Look around you Glenn. We're some of the only. People. Left. We did what we had to do to keep ourselves safe." I stormed ahead, they could follow if they wanted.

Daryl felt into line with me as we walked silently. I could hear footsteps behind me too. We reached the place where the van should have been.

Should have.

"Oh my God."

"Where the hell's our van?"

"We left it right there. Who would take it?"

"Who do we know that might be pissed off enough to try and escape town without another hand?"

"Merle."

"He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp" Without the van, we'd have to walk all the way to camp. Which would be a long, very awkward journey.

Groaning in frustration, I began to walk.

_________________________________________

**Josie POV**

"Pass the fish, please."

"Here you go."

"Man o man, that's good. I miss this."

It had been ages since I'd last had fish. Mommy and Aunt Ruth had always made this amazing Christmas fish dinner for us when the family got together. My stomach rumbled at the sight of the delicious fish cooking on the fire.

Sophia sat next to me, asking loads of questions about me. What was my favourite colour, who was my favourite family member, where was I from... I pretended to be slightly annoyed, but it was actually nice to have a friend who cared about me. She eventually found her way in deeper with the family subject, and I noticed other people stopping their own conversations to listen. I was fine with that. I was the new person, who'd come trailing after a violent and uncooperative sister.

"How many siblings did you have?"

"Four."

"You had four siblings?" Carl looked surprisingly amazed.

"Three brothers and Liz."

"I don't mean to impose, but, what happened to them?" Dale looked over at me, he was trying to be kind, I could tell, but I still felt tears prickle in my eyes. It wasn't something I wanted to talk about. I didn't even know where Carter was.

Amy seemed to sense that I was upset. She reached across and touched my arm. "I think that's something we should ask her sister."

"If she'll talk to us." Andrea mumbled.

"Liz doesn't like talking about it."

"God, I'd imagine. Sorry."

"It's okay."

"What were their names?" Lori asked. As I answered her, I was able to picture all three of them in my head. It was nice to remember them.

"I'm the youngest sibling. Then it's Hunter, he was twelve. Carter was sixteen, he was the middle child. And then there was Liz and Caleb."

"Wait, they're the same age...?" It was like Amy had only just noticed what that meant when she voiced her realisation; she clapped her hands over her mouth and shook her head. "So you're sister had a twin."

"Yeah."

"Oh God." The talking ended there. The adults started a funnier conversation, whilst Sophia and I went back to asking each other questions.

Amy stood up and brushed soot from the fire off her pants. Andrea looked up at her, alarmed.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to pee. Jeez, you try to be discreet around here..." Sophia, Carl and I giggled as she jogged to the RV. She was a little while before I heard the RV door open again. "We're out of toilet paper?"

Then she screamed. It was loud and blood-curdling. I whipped around and saw Amy shrieking as she fell, trying to drag herself away from the walker that had bitten her arm.

Andrea screamed "Amy!" and leapt up with everybody else. Walkers were coming out of the trees, they shambled up the hill and down the bank.

"Mom!"

"Carl!"

"Lori, get him down!" Shane roared. He raised his gun and shot a walker in the head. I clutched Sophia's hand and dragged her away from the walkers trying to pushed through the campfire.

A walker snatched up a woman and bit into her face, ripping it from her bones. Another latched onto her hip, and another on her neck. She went down in a sea of undead corpses.

More walkers advanced on us from everywhere. We were practically surrounded.

_________________________________________

**Liz POV**

Night had fallen by the time we were even halfway to the quarry. We were now surrounded by the stone walls of the quarry, every sound echoed around us.

Including the screams and gunshots from camp.

"Oh my God."

"Go! Go!" Running as fast as we could go, we raced to camp. Rick threw us guns and charged into the centre of the action.

God, it was horrible. People lay dead and dying on the ground. One woman was missing her arm; I found it being chewed by a walker I promptly put down. I couldn't see Josie anywhere. Panic set it, all around me was death and blood. The fire illuminated everything in a dark, creepy light, making the spooks look much scarier than they actually were.

By the RV, Andrea's sister had been grabbed by a walker. She screamed as it bit into the side of her neck, blood cascading in a waterfall onto the ground. Andrea began to scream too, and she rushed to her sister's side as a thin, weedy man crushed the walker's head. "No! No! Oh God! Oh my God!"

I heard my sister yelling from near the RV. Rick's wife and his best friend had gathered most of the survivors there, where they were standing off against the walkers. Josie must have forgotten her gun and knife in her tent, because she made no effort to kill walkers.

"Come on, make your way to the Winnebago!" There were only a few walkers left; I gunned down two as I ran to the RV. Josie spotted me and ran into my arms sobbing.

Behind me, I could hear gargled breaths, and then they stopped. Andrea let out a long, pain-filled moan and started to shout. "Amy! Amy! Amy!"

The thin man who had killed the walker that had bitten Andrea's sister spoke for the first time I'd known him. His words echoed up and down my spine, I felt lost hearing them. "I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes."

 


	6. Day Sixty-Two

Morning had come too slowly. We'd spent the majority of the night trying to find the bodies- and hope that we'd killed every walker in camp.

Andrea's sister was one of the few walkers that hadn't been put down yet. Lori had tried to ask her if we could move her, but she'd gotten no response. We'd gathered around the ashes of the campfire to discuss out options.

"Can't just leave Amy like that." Shane reasoned, receiving agreement from everyone around us. "We need to deal with it same as the others."

"I'll tell her how it is." Rick stated, walking off towards Andrea. I had a bad feeling about it, Andrea was frozen where she was for now.

He went to lean down. I didn't hear what he said, but it must've touched a nerve with Andrea, because she pulled her gun and aimed it at his head. "I know how the safety works."

"All right. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He stumbled back to us and shook his head. Daryl, who'd been listening to us talk with no input of his own, finally snapped.

"Y'all can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb."

"What do you suggest?" Rick asked.

"Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"No. For God's sakes, let her be." Lori spat. I decided to step in, since Daryl looked ready to aim the crossbow at her instead.

"He's not wrong. It only takes a minute for Andrea to look away, and then we're all in trouble, because then it's two problems to deal with."

"So what are you gonna suggest? We drag Andrea away and shoot Amy?"

"If that's what needs to be done." At her disgusted looks, I realised that maybe I should find something else to do, away from Lori Grimes. "Think it over, I'm gon' go help Daryl burn the bodies." She was still red faced when I walked away to where Daryl was trying to drag bodies on his own. I grabbed the legs of the body he was carrying, and together we chucked it onto the burning pile of bodies.

We went to grab the next one, a man that had been killed in camp, when Glenn noticed where we were taking it. "What are you guys doing? This is for geeks. Our people go over there."

"What's the difference?" Daryl questioned, pulling it towards the fire. "They're all infected." Glenn followed, still persistent and slowly raising his voice.

"Our people go in that row over there. WE DON'T BURN THEM!" In my shock, I dropped the legs of the dead man and turned to Glenn, noticing others had done the same. "We bury them. Understand? Our people go in that row over there."

Daryl 'hmphed' and indicated to take body to where Glenn wanted it. He dropped him carelessly and spat "You reap what you sow."

"Really?" I asked, "You choosin' now to be an ass?"

"Y'all left my brother for dead. YOU HAD THIS COMIN'!" He stormed away from those of us moving bodies, disappearing into the treeline. He'd likely come back after he calmed down; it seemed that unlike Merle, Daryl was capable of making smart decisions.

I managed to move bodies on my own; it wasn't my first time dragging them around, and it wouldn't be my last, I suspected. Josie sat with the kids, and for once, I was glad she wasn't stuck right by my side. Seeing the bodies of people, she may have talked to in camp wasn't anything a child should see.

Our plan to leave was obviously out of the picture of now. I knew these people, it would be cruel to abandon them just as they were struck with tragedy. Where would we go anyway? Home was in Arkansas, and I doubted we'd make it that far on our own.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Daryl come back into clearing. He wielded a pickaxe and joined T-Dog in stabbing the bodied through the head to prevent reanimation.

"A walker got him, a walker bit Jim!" I almost snapped my neck turning around to see where the voice had come from. The bodies were abandoned as the group members began to panic; a person bitten by a walker could cause trouble. Bad enough Andrea wouldn't let anyone put down her sister, now this?

I followed Shane and Rick to where a circle of people was gathering around someone; it was the weedy, dark haired man who had killed the walker that bit Andrea's sister. He wrapped his arms around himself and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, mumbling. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

"Show it to us." Daryl demanded. The man clawed at the air in front of him, trying to keep Daryl back. His face was pale and sickly. I looked down to his shirt, and saw a dark red patch spreading.

"Easy, Jim." No amount of reassurance was helping this man. Jim noticed Daryl's pickaxe and snatched it, holding it in front of him. He held it more like a life support than a weapon, it was pressed to his chest.

"Grab him."

"Jim, put it down. Put it down." Unknown to Jim, T-Dog had crept behind him. Jim whimpered in pain when T-Dogs arms seized him and held him still whilst Daryl lifted his shirt.

"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim's bite was large and had clear teeth marks. The ski around the bite was greenish and bruising, the bite itself was filled with pus and other disgusting liquids that oozed and mingled with his blood. "I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay."

___________________________________________

Daryl did not win anyone's favour with his suggestion.

"I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it." He stated.

"Is that what you'd want if it were you?"

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it." The old man cleared his throat and spoke

"I hate to say it... I never thought I would... but maybe Daryl's right."

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." Rick talked down to the old man- Dale-, who visibly wilted under Rick's rant.

"I'm not suggesting..."

"He's sick. A sick man! We start down that road, where do we draw the line?" His eyes darted my way. Thanks, Rick. I knew exactly why he was looking at me like that.

"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be."

"Daryl has a point Rick." I addressed the angry and repulsed group around me. "Ya'll can look at me like that all ya'll want, but if the girl turns and bites Andrea, we got more problems than we can afford on our hands. And that ain't even mentionin' the infected guy."

"Jim and Amy." Lori added sharply.

"What?"

"Their names are Jim and Amy, not 'the infected guy' and 'the girl'. At least know their names before you decide you want them dead." Lori's words hit me like a truck. In some ways, I could see her point; did I have any right to tell people what they should do without even knowing the people they were talking about? I tried to think about how I would have felt if anyone had referred to Caleb as 'the infected guy'. Would I have been angry? Or would I have agreed with them?

I'd made a lot of hard decisions in the past few weeks, I didn't even know if I'd agreed with half of them. I just knew that they had to be done. We had to survive. Living could come after that.

"What if we can get him help?" Rick suggested. "I heard the C.D.C. was working on a cure."

"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell."

"What if the C.D.C. is still up and running?" Rick was full of hope, looking around at everyone to see if they felt the same. Instead, he was met with misery and doubt. Even Lori and his friend Shane.

"Man, that is a stretch right there."

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C. at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection..."

"Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning."

"That's 100 miles in the opposite direction."

"That is right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me. If that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there."

"Fort Benning is one of the first places everyone would have went." I countered. "It's probably overrun with walkers, just like Atlanta."

"She's right Shane. The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that. The C.D.C. is our best choice and Jim's only chance." Shane walked away to Jim, obviously put out that his idea backfired so quickly. He passed Daryl, who huffed and lifted his pickaxe.

"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" Suddenly, Daryl spun and tried to bring his pickaxe down on Jim's head. Rick skidded into place behind him and put the gun to his head.

"We don't kill the living." Rick snarled.

"That's funny, coming from a man who just put a gun to my head."

"We may disagree on some things, not on this." Shane said to Rick. He glared at Daryl whilst attempting to calm a quivering Jim. "You put it down. Go on." Daryl dropped the pickaxe and stormed off for the second time that day.

Uninterested in listening to anything else, I decided to pay a visit to my sister and her new friend, a blonde child wearing a blue blouse. They were sat with Morales' wife and Carol. As I neared them, Morales' wife whispered to Carol and left with her two children, looking back at me with burning hatred.

Josie smiled at me and continued colouring with the blonde girl until I sat down. "I know how long this has been going on." She waved her arms around to tell me she meant the walker virus situation.

"Really? And how long is that?"

"Sixty-two days." The number span around my head. Only sixty-two days? It had felt longer than two months. I could barely even remember what it was like to live in a normal house, with electricity, running water... sixty-two?

"That- that's very smart of you." She smiled proudly and shoved a picture of a rather strange stick person in my face.

"This is you. Do you want to keep it?"

"Of course." Josie went back to colouring something else -a cat, by the looks of it- and her friend asked for a blue crayon.

"Liz, this is Sophia and her mommy Carol." Sophia ducked her head down, freckles standing out against her bright red face. Carol was no better, her ears turned red, and she mumbled a 'hello'. "Carol and Sophia are nice."

"Well, if you think they're nice, then they must be." I leaned over Sophia's drawing. "Hey, what's that?" She mumbled something I couldn't understand. "What?"

"S'a horse."

"It's good. I like horses."

"Me too."

"I'm not very good at riding them though, ask Rick." I leaned closer and whispered in her ear. "I fell off a horse into a mud patch when I was eight, but you can't tell anyone." She giggled and promised not to say anything.

BANG! Somebody's gun went off by the RV, causing everyone to skittishly move about and try to determine why. Heart in my throat, and I leaned around several people to see that Andrea had finally done what was right. Amy's head oozed blood from a bullet wound. Andrea managed to get to her feet and almost drag herself into the RV while her gun was still smoking.

One down. Only Jim left to go. With Daryl off and doing his other job (stopping walkers from reanimating) it would be left to me to convince Rick that putting Jim down was his best option.

________________________________________________

A makeshift funeral was held for the fifteen camp members who had died during the walker attack. Devoid of coffins, we instead wrapped the bodies in sheets, unable to face burying them exposed.

When it came to Amy's turn to be put in a grave, Andrea insisted on placing her inside the hole. It was heart-breaking to watch her as she struggled to drag Amy in. Shane offered her a hand, but she refused, pulling her little sister into the grave herself. "I can do it. I can do it. I can do it! I can do it." Amy's body thudded into the bed of the hole.

After that moment of silence, where nobody wants to be the first to leave, we headed back down the hill to sort out the belongings of the dead. Although Rick and Lori had wanted their things to be left behind, Shane and I had made our argument clear; supplies were running low as it was already. If we left valuable things behind, then we were sentencing ourselves to die. Rick's face was dark as we emerged from tents carrying weapons, clothing and food, but he said nothing.

Meanwhile, Jim's condition has deteriorated quickly. He'd gone from pale and sickly to a full fever, complete with incoherent mumbles and itchiness around his bite. Rick coerced me into reapplying a bandage around it, and I had to cover my nose whilst doing so. The smell was horrible, it was like the skin around his bite was already dead and rotting. Dark veins webbed from the teeth marks.

"His fever is worse." Carol added, wiping a wet cloth across Jim's head. She was right, his skin was like a furnace.

"You need anything?" Lori asked. Jim licked his lips and replied,

"Uh... Water. Could use more water."

"I'll get some."

"Okay."

"Carol, you help me?" The two women left, and it was just Rick and I watching Jim. Asking about Jim's future wasn't an option at the moment; I could wait until Rick had spoken with him.

"Rick, I'll just be back here if you need me." He nodded in acknowledgement. I leaned against the counter and tried to block out Rick and Jim's private conversation, when another set of voices caught my attention.

"I need you to help talk some sense into Rick." A deep male voice. Shane. "Look, this C.D.C. thing, Lori, it's a mistake. So you're backing him?" So, Shane and Lori were right outside the door. Lori spoke it hushed tones after Shane asked her the question.

"What else would I do? He's my husband."

"Look, it may be time for you to play the dutiful wife, but you can't tell me that fixing your marriage is worth putting people's lives at risk." Shane sounded incredibly bitter, like he disliked the idea of Rick and Lori 'fixing their marriage'.

"I think folks around here can make up their minds without bringing my marriage into it. It's a habit you need to break." A habit? So, this kind of thing had come up before. Shane took his time answering her, I could hear her foot tapping into the dirt.

"I guess I'll just add it to the list of habits that I'm breaking whether I like it or not." As Shane answered her, Rick finished his conversation with Jim and threw the door wide open to reveal Shane and Lori stood just by the door. Shane turned sharply, noting both Rick and I stood there.

"What habits?" Lori visibly relaxed after she realised Rick had only heard the end of their conversation. After we locked eyes, however, I tried my hardest to make sure she knew that I'd heard it all.

"Just talking about my need for a plan, man. So what is it? Are we leaving or not? Maybe y'all just want to stay here. We could hang some more tin cans." Shane still sounded bitter but hid most of it well.

"We can't stay here. We both know that."

"I was just telling Shane I think we should trust your gut." Lori added. 'Liar' I thought. 'You're scared he'll find out about something' I just needed to find out what that was.

Jim groaned from inside, and it brought me back down to earth, and to the questions I had wanted to ask Rick. "Rick, you got a minute?"

"Yeah, sure." He followed me around to the back of the RV, where I took a long, deep breath, and started to try and convince him.

"Rick, I don't think taking Jim with us is a good idea."

"Not you too-"

"Rick, listen-"

"No. Liz, this man is sick! He needs help, not a bullet to the head." Denial was a word used for moments like this. Rick wasn't stupid, he knew Jim had very little chance of making it. He was a cop trying to pretend he was coping in a world without laws.

"Rick, stop. You've seen the state he's in, and he's only been ill a few hours! It's moving quickly, he won't make the trip."

"You don' know that."

"I do." Rick shook his head in disbelief.

"No, you don-"

"Rick. I do." My voice pitched, cracking with emotion as hot tears tried to burn my eyes. Whatever he'd heard in my words seemed to break him; he pressed his hand into his forehead and looked down at the ground. "Please. It'd be doin' him mercy."

"Can you make it quick?" He said softly.

"Knife to the base of the skull. He wouldn' feel a damn thing until right before it drove home."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah. I-I'll get Shane to help you take him up the hill. You can't do it down here. Not with everyone here."

"Thank y-"

"Don't." He growled. "Don't ever thank me for lettin' you kill a man."

___________________________________________________

"Would ya'll look at that. This damn tree. Can't seem to get away from it." Jim's eyes were closed, which I was glad for. I didn't want him watching Shane dig an extra grave meant especially for him.

"Are you sure you're comfortable?" He nodded his head lazily.

"Never felt better. Air's nice, much nicer than inside the Winnebago." Cold sweat ran down his forehead; he didn't seem to mind. "I can't wait to see Lilly."

"Lilly?"

"Mah wife. She's so beautiful. And my two boys. God I've missed 'em." His eyes glazed over. Now was the best time to withdraw the knife and avoid startling Jim. "They're waiting for me, ya know. With Amy. They're all swimming by the boat."

"It sounds wonderful." He smiled and closed his eyes again. With careful precision, I leaned over him and positioned the knife; its tip hovered inches away from his skin. When I turned around to see if Shane was still digging, I noticed that he had left, the grave already dug. "Keep your eyes closed Jim."

"I'm goin' home to them." He told me. "I'm goin' home... I'm goin' home..."

It was a mantra he repeated until the knife was pushed up into his brain. His head lolled sideways onto my shoulder. His entire body relaxed. I waited a moment to recollect my thoughts before deciding to move him into his grave.

There was a bedsheet laid down beside his grave for him. I wrapped him in it slowly and carefully, making sure his eyes were already closed.

Moving Jim was easier. He was small and thin, lighter than most bodies. But he still made the same sound as every other body when he hit the bottom of the grave. Filling the hole up didn't make me feel any better.

I found flowers growing behind the tree Jim had been leaning against. I placed five of them on his grave, just as I heard someone behind me clear their voice.

I rotated around and looked at Daryl. He stared back, neither one of us sure of what to say. How did you talk about something like this? Finally, Daryl swung his crossbow in the direction of Jim's grave. "Why?"

"I know what has to be done." I answered. "It don't mean I like doin' it."

We walked down the hill together. Everywhere I turned at the campsite, I was faced with looks of repulsion and hatred. I heard their whispers, the quiet conversations between Morales' wife and Jacqui, the short arguments between T-Dog, Rick and the old man.

It was made worse when we had to gather together to wait for Rick, Shane and the old man to get back and deliver a final verdict on what we were doing, where we would be heading. I sat with Andrea and Carol, though the latter was mostly because her daughter Sophia was my sister's new favourite person.

Shane broke through the clearing much later, when the sun was lurking just above the horizon. Rick and the old man followed.

"I've been, uh... I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Now look, there are no... There are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time. I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning."

Josie and I departed to our tent after the group dispersed. She was adamant that she repacked her own bag. I never unpacked mine. "Get your sleep. I'm gon' keep watch for a while."

"Okay." She snuggled into her cot and was out within minutes. I unzipped the tent and left quietly. Sleeping was not an option right now.

Someone else was already sitting by the campfire I had intended to light up. Their head rose as I sat down, and I smiled at the familiar face. Daryl.

"Can't sleep?" He didn't answer, choosing to continue to stare into the flames. For once, he didn't have his crossbow by his side.

I sat down across from him, watching the fire burn. He shifted and looked at me, and finally spoke. "Thought you were leavin'?"

"I was."

"What made you stay?" He seemed genuinely interested. Maybe he'd had the same idea. Without his brother here, nothing was tying Daryl to a group that didn't even like him that much.

"I... I don't really know."

We were silent for the rest of the night. Just two people sat by the fire until the sun began to rise.


	7. Choices

Daybreak saw everyone who had survived the camp massacre trek down to the road, where several cars awaited. Nearly everyone had a backpack hanging off their shoulders. Shane and Rick stepped up to the front and began to tell everyone what would be happening. "Everybody listen up. Those of you with C.B.s, we're gonna be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a C.B., can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?" Nobody spoke. "Come on. Let's go. Let's move out."

Deciding where everyone would sit was a disaster. Shane had stalked off to his own truck, and nobody but Rick and his family knew him well enough to ask for a ride. Carol, Lori, Rick and the kids between them piled into Carol's car, and Morales' widow and her kids got in with T-Dog and Andrea.

Josie and I looked around at the RV, where the old man had already offered Jacqui and Glenn a ride. "Josie, we'll get in the old guy's Winnebago-"

"His name is Dale."

"Whatever. So, you get in there now whilst I grab the other bag." She skipped up the steps as I grabbed the other bags we had left. I'd have to sort everything out to fit into one bag; I couldn't carry two all the time.

"You can ride with me." I heard. Daryl's truck was parked just next to Dale's RV. "Nobody in the RV likes you right now." Way to be blunt. Still, he was telling the truth. All three had looked at me like I was going to stab them at any moment.

"You sure?"

"Uh huh." He threw open the passenger door. Before I could get in, I needed to tell Josie that I would be in a different car. I popped my head around the RV door and shouted through.

"Josie, I'm gonna get in Daryl's truck, okay?"

"Are you sure?" Dale asked me. "I mean, we have enough room." I waved him off and thanked him.

"Naw. I'll put the bags in here and get in with Daryl." Josie dragged the heavy bags into the RV for me as I jumped into Daryl's truck with him. "You ready to go?"

"Sure." He waited until the RV and Carol's car got ahead before pulling onto the main road. I looked at the bike strapped in the back and noted the 'SS' insignia on its side. Merle's bike, I was assuming. Daryl had yet to give me reason to believe he held the same views as Merle. Hadn't given me reason to believe he didn't either.

The Winnebago didn't get far along the road. We made it a few miles from the quarry before it began to splutter and broke down. Group members flooded out of their vehicles to take a look at the RV.

"I told you we'd never get far on that hose. I said I needed the one from the cube van." Dale said.

"Can you jury-rig it?"

"That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape." I stepped out the truck to go see how bad the situation.

"Which one."

"Lower radiator hose." Dale answered. An idea came to mind, but since I wasn't an expert, I couldn't be sure.

"What about the flex hose? Could that work if you have a spare?" Dale looked up and banged his hand against the engine.

"You know, it just might!" Suddenly, he frowned. "Flex hose would be pretty tight fitting, could pop out of place or rub against other parts."

"If duct tape it in place it shouldn't move."

"I don't have any tape."

"I do. Hold on a minute." While Dale rushed into the Winnebago to get his spare flex hose, I jogged to Daryl's truck and unzipped my personal backpack. *I carried a lot of things inside and had to root around to find the roll of tape inside.

My hand brushed the corner of something cold and metal inside the backpack, and I pulled it out hesitantly.

It was a family photograph. I was sat off to the side, hair much longer and curlier than it was now. Josie was tucked under my arm, grinning.

I didn't hear Andrea come up behind me until she jabbed her finger at the photograph. "Who's that?" She smirked. "Your boyfriend?"

She had pointed at the young blond man on my other side. That stupid exclamation mark tattoo beside his left eye stood out like a sore thumb. He never grinned, only gave that idiotic half smile, like he knew something important. "No. Brother." Andrea's smile faded and she sounded much more sincere.

"Sorry. Your twin, right?" So, Josie had been talking to them about our family. Great. The last thing I wanted was for the group to know my entire backstory, just when I was debating whether I would be leaving.

"Yeah, Caleb."

"Did he die? I said nothing, I couldn't. Andrea seemed to understand me clearly. She squeezed my shoulder and walked back to Dale.

I turned the photograph over and placed it back in the bag. Memories were a hindrance in this new world. The only solution for survival was to forget.

__________________________________________

From the outside, the CDC looked like a dead end. If the inside was any different, I'd be surprised.

"So much for military protection." I said to Daryl. He stayed silent, choosing to scowl up at the building. I had no doubt that he would have words to say when he came face-to-face with Rick.

The group piled out of the cars and the RV silently. Shane and Rick led the group in the front, whilst Daryl and I stayed at the back to prevent stragglers from being separated. Any words spoken were hushed whispers. "All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let's go. Okay, keep moving. Stay together."

"Keep moving. Come on."

"Shh."

"Carol."

"Keep it together. Come on." We passed maybe dozens of dead bodies lying on the ground. Soldiers had been here. Had being the key word. Their bodies were easily recognisable, though their uniforms were torn and blood splattered.

The doors to the CDC were blocked by shutter. We'd travelled all this way to find a building that we had no chance of getting into.

Shane was of a similar thought track. He looked around wildly and finally settled on Rick. "Nothing?"

"There's nobody here."

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick snapped. He tried to foolishly lift a shutter, which would even move a little.

Animalistic growling from behind the group caught everyone's attention. Daryl landed an arrow in the forehead on one walker, I shot another. "Walkers!"

People began to panic. We were in the middle of an open area, and more and more walkers were advancing. With only a few of us carrying weapons, we'd be mostly defenceless. It would be the quarry camp all over again.

"You led us into a graveyard!" Daryl roared, charging at Rick. Shane stepped between them and tried to reason with him.

"He made a call."

"It was the wrong damn call!"

"Just shut up. You hear? Shut up. Shut up! Rick, this is a dead end." Rick continued to deny the truth. "Do you hear me? No blame."

"He's right." Lori added. "We can't be here, this close to the city after dark."

"Fort Benning, Rick... Still an option."

"On what? No food, no fuel. That's 100 miles."

"125. I checked the map." All of the evidence pointed to us being stranded in the middle of nowhere. The walkers were beginning to grow in numbers, emerging from behind tanks and barricades. I'd come all this way, only to now be stuck following a blind man.

"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now."

"We'll think of something."

"We don't have time to think of something!" I spat. "We need a plan now."

"Come on, let's go. Let's get out of here. Let's go. Please." Shane attempted to herd everyone back to the RV. "All right, everybody back to the cars. Let's go. Move." A hand pushed against my lower back, trying to direct me towards the cars. Rick remained frozen where he was, staring up at a CCTV camera in the corner of the abandoned building.

"The camera... it moved." I almost laughed for a minute there. He'd cracked. Finally, the new world had caught up to him and cracked him.

"You imagined it." Dale suggested to him dubiously.

"It moved." Rick insisted. "It moved."

"Rick, it is dead, man. It's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on." No matter how hard Shane pushed him, or tried to convince him, Rick would not leave the front of the building. "Man, just listen to me. Look around this place. It's dead, okay? It's dead. You need to let it go, Rick."

"Rick, there's nobody here!" Still, Rick paid no attention. He began to bang on the shutters desperately, shouting to people we couldn't even prove existed.

"I know you're in there. I know you can hear me!"

"Everybody get back to the cars now!" The hand on my back became a little more forceful, calloused fingers digging in to try and push me towards the cars.

"Please, we're desperate. Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left."

"Rick. There's nobody here."

"We have nowhere else to go." Rick pleaded. His voice began to rise as he hit the shutters harder and harder each time. "Keep your eyes open. If you don't let us in, you're killing us! Please!"

"Come on, buddy, let's go. Let's go." Shane had had enough. He gripped Rick and tried to drag him literally kicking and screaming towards the cars. Josie rushed back to grip my hand, working with the hand behind me to pull me towards the cars.

"Please help us. You're killing us! YOU'RE KILLING US! YOU'RE KILLING US!" Shane finally managed to turn Rick around to face the other way.

I heard the shutters moving before I saw it. They clanked and clattered open; wide light flooded the nightfall as we stood there.

Rick had been right after all. Goddamn.

___________________________________________

The group was deservedly paranoid as we crept inside the CDC's main lobby. Nobody was waiting for us, instead, we were greeted with utter silence. The only sounds that could be heard were the groans of walkers mingled in with Lori's whispering.

"Daryl, you cover the back." Shane pumped the shotgun and advanced alongside Rick.

"Hello? Hello?"

"Watch those doors." Dale warned. "Watch for walkers."

I peered into the darkness of the building's corner. The CDC was large and made mainly of glass; it was fairly bright in the main lobby.

A shotgun pumped from behind a desk. I could safely assume that it didn't belong to Shane this time. Someone leaned over the countertop and shouted at us from where they were. "Anybody infected?"

"No"

"Why are you here? What do you want?"

"A chance."

"That's asking an awful lot these days." The stranger pointed out.

"I know." The stranger stayed silent for a moment, likely deciding our fate.

"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission." They finally decided, stepping into the light.

It was a man, older and blond, with some scruff clinging to his chin. He held a shotgun in his hands tentatively, as if he was afraid it would bite him.

"We can do that."

"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed." Shane, T-Dog and Daryl all volunteered to run outside and grab things we may need. I followed Andrea and Dale as we headed further into the building. Every room we passed was shut and locked tight, and I could see no other doctors with the man. "Vi, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here." The front door shutters closed down moments after Shane and the other two men flocked inside.

"Rick Grimes."

"Dr. Edwin Jenner." He ushered everyone into an elevator. It was a tight fit, and I ended up crushed between Daryl and Carol at the back. I'd let Josie stand at the front with the other kids.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl commented; Dr Jenner turned around and tapped his fingers against the gun barrel absentmindedly.

"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself. But you look harmless enough. Except you." He said to Carl jokingly. "I'll have to keep my eye on you."

The elevator doors opened into a mostly dark corridor. Everything was concrete and cold, with no life. Jenner stalked down the hallway, his shoes clicking across the hard flooring. "Are we underground?"

"Are you claustrophobic?"

"A little." Carol admitted.

"Try not to think about it."

Large metal doors at the end of the corridor opened as Jenner reached them. "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." As if on command, the room lit up, and a calm female voice echoed around the chamber.

"Welcome to Zone 5." Aside from Jenner, I couldn't see anybody else here. The room was cold and empty, just like everywhere else in Atlanta.

"Where is everybody?" Rick questioned. "The other doctors, the staff?"

"I'm it. It's just me here." Hot bubbles of anger popped inside me. If I could have gotten away with it, I would have turned to Rick and punched him. We'd risked death and used up all of our fuel and food to get to the CDC, only for it to be abandoned by all but one?

"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?" Jenner looked at Lori's hopeful face and crushed it by replying.

"Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them... Welcome."

"Hello, guests. Welcome." The voiceover echoed back. A computer. All that was left of the CDC was one doctor and a damn computer.

"I'm all that's left. I'm sorry." He let that sink in for a moment before deciding that we needed to take a blood test right away. "It's for the safety of everyone that I ensure you're not all infected."

"Why don' you just check for bites?" I suggested. He snickered, like he had expected the question, and knew he could outdo me with an answer.

"A blood test is resolute. Bites are the confirmed way of infection, but what's to say it's not in scratches, or their blood and saliva?"

"I've been soaked in walker blood before, and I ain't got infected." He dabbed a wet cotton bud on the spot where he had inserted the needle into my arm.

"Well, maybe you're just lucky." He beckoned for Andrea to sit down, where the conversation continued.

"She's not wrong though. What's the point? If we were infected, we'd all be running a fever."

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here. Let me just at least be thorough. All done." Andrea stood, swayed, and would likely have fallen if Jacqui hadn't caught her arm. "Are you okay?"

"She hasn't eaten in days." Jacqui replied. "None of us have."

________________________________________________

The good doctor was kind enough to fix everyone a meal of spaghetti and sauce while everyone was recovering from their blood tests. He was even nice enough to bring alcohol to the table (I made a beeline for a bottle of scotch to avoid drinking wine).

"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France." At the other side of the table, Dale and Rick were attempting to coerce Lori into allowing Carl a taste of wine. So far, they had been unsuccessful.

"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then."

"What's it gonna hurt? Come on." Lori looked at Rick with wide eyes. "Come on. What?" Seeing that she had lost the fight, Lori allowed Dale to pour Carl a small glass.

"There you are, young lad." The small boy took one sip and put it down immediately, making a face.

"Eww!" We all burst into laughter as he shook his head "Yuck. That tastes nasty!" Lori took his glass the poured the leftover wine into her own. A move I could be proud of.

"That's my boy. That's my boy. Good boy."

"Well, just stick to sour pop there, bud."

"Not you, Glenn." Daryl added.

"What?"

"Keep drinking, little man. I want to see how red your face can get." As everyone laughed, I noticed Josie try to sneak a little bit of wine from the bottle.

"Miss Josephine Marie Warren, what in the hell do you think your doin'?" Everyone roared with laughter as she froze mid-pour and flashed a sheepish grin.

"I wanna try some too!"

"Oh, go on, let her have a try!" Rick joked, I snorted and poured her a little bit before informing everyone that she already knew what wine tasted like. They just laughed harder.

"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly." Rick said, smiling at Dr Jenner. He smiled back tentatively.

"He is more than just our host." Everyone raised their glasses (Daryl and I raised whole bottles) and began to cheer for the doctor.

"Hear hear!"

"Here's to you, doc."

"BOOYAH!" Daryl shouted, swigging from his bottle.

The commotion died down as everyone returned to celebrating our survival with food and drink. Eventually, one voice raised itself higher than the others, and addressed Jenner. "So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc? All the... the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?" The merry atmosphere of the dining area died down. Shane, now onto his sixth glass of wine, looked like he'd moved from happy drunk to just plain drunk.

"We're celebrating, Shane." Rick warned him. "Don't need to do this now."

"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move... Supposed to find all the answers. Instead we... We found him. Found one man. Why?" His attempt at laughing was pitiful and bitter. Jenner looked visibly uncomfortable as the attention was turned to him. He answered quietly.

"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left. Went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted." I'd seen that happen. I'd watched people run over other people in their panic and desperation to live. I'd done it myself.

"Every last one?" Shane asked.

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They... opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."

"You didn't leave." Andrea said. "Why?"

"I just kept working. Hoping to do some good." The good mood was gone. Food suddenly tasted sour.

"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man." Shane looked down after Glenn spoke.

The majority of the plates were left empty when dinner was finished. Some had been abandoned after Jenner had discussed the absence of his colleagues. He waited for us in the hall and began to run us through the dos, don'ts and bed spaces of the CDC. "Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power." All five children agreed to leave the video games alone, though Louis looked put out. "The same applies... If you shower, go easy on the hot water." His last words were passed around the group like something sacred. A mad dash to the showers followed next, with everyone parting ways without even looking back.

I let Josie into the showers first. It had been decided that, because this room had a larger cot and two couches, that Carol and Sophia would be staying with us. Sophia and Carol had already showered and had headed down to the rec room.

The water was amazing from the first moment it came into contact with my skin. I was immediately thankful I had gone in last; it gave me more time under the blissfully soothing waterfall.

I made sure to scrub away any walker blood or dirt from my body. I was a little less vigorous with scrapes, bruises, and that ugly scab forming on my lip from when I had been punched and hit the gravel hard. The water cascading down my back calmed every nerve in my body. I finally felt okay.

It was almost painful to step out of the shower, thought the warmth of the towel did make it a little better. I moved from the bathroom to the mirror in the main room I'd be sleeping in. Clothing was already set out for me, Carol had left a little note hoping they would fit. It was nice to have someone do something genuinely nice for me.

I dropped the towel. The first thing that stood out was the large scar that ran down from the upper inside of my thigh to just above my knee. I'd almost died from that cut; my mother -a practising nurse before the apocalypse- had told me that it had missed the femoral artery by inches. I'd responded by telling her it was better than being torn apart by the walkers.

I'd just wriggled into a pair of underwear when I heard a gasp from behind me. For a fleeting moment, I thought it may have been Rick or Glenn, and so I rushed to wrap the towel around my chest to hide my bare breasts.

Andrea covered her eyes and apologised, "Jesus, sorry. I should've knocked."

"Ya think?!" I snapped, quickly pulling on my t-shirt and pyjama pants. She continued to look at me. "What?"

"You... have a lot of tattoos."

"Yeah."

"How many?"

"Four."

"Oh." She stood in the doorway, examining the carpet as if it was the most interesting thing she could think of. "What are the-"

"Do you actually have a reason you're in here?" I interrupted. I was tired, and with Josie off playing in the rec room, I had time to relax without an energetic ten-year-old buzzing around me.

"How'd you do it?" She asked suddenly. Her eyes were red and puffy. She'd been crying.

"Do what?"

"You lost your brother-"

"I lost a helluva lot more than that." She absorbed that information and shut the door behind us. I wasn't stupid, I knew where this conversation was going.

"How are you doing it?"

"Doin' what-"

"Coping!" She snarled. She started to cry again, a mix of snot and tears on her face. "Since Amy's been gone, I can barely even move without thinking about how I should've saved her."

"Weren't your fault." She shook her head and flicked tears everywhere. Uck. I wasn't sure of how to comfort her. If she left looking like this, people might assume that I'd said something; half of them already hated me enough already. "Hey, you did the right thing in the end. You stopped her from hurting anyone else. It's the best way, they wouldn't ever want to come back and kill people, it's the right thang to do."

"Is that what you did?" I spluttered and stumbled over my words, trying to find a decent answer to Andrea's question. "You sound like you know the feeling."

"I'd like you to go now." She stood up, stunned. "I'm tired. I want to sleep."

Andrea left without another word, leaving me to curl up on the couch, the beginning of headache throbbing in my temples.

____________________________________________

As expected, I woke up the next morning with a hangover. God, even my throat was burning. Was coffee something Jenner would have? Did coffee even last long? Knowing my luck, coffee had likely expired, along with most of my favourite things.

Josie had left a note explaining that she'd went down to the rec room with Eliza and Sophia. Once again, I was left child free. I considered that a rare treat.

Without Jenner to lead me around, the CDC seemed like a maze. I walked into several different rooms before I finally found the dining area again.

T-Dog had made breakfast for everyone. Rick greeted me as I walked past, clearly hung-over too. Shane walked in not long after I did, heading straight to the sink for a glass of water. I saw that a kettle had been used. "Is there any coffee?"

"Third cupboard on the right. Hope you like it dark, we don't have milk."

"I'll live without it." I made my cup of coffee and inhaled the smell like it was the antidote to a poison I'd drank. God, I'd missed coffee.

"The hell happened to you?" I snapped my head around to listen to T-Dog. He wasn't talking about me. "Your neck?" Shane lifted his hand to the side of his neck, where there was three long, shallow scratches.

"I must have done it in my sleep." He concluded.

"Never seen you do that before." Rick looked at him oddly as he sat down. I leaned against the counter and waited to see what he said. I could see Shane's fingernails; they were short and trimmed down and most definitely NOT long enough to cause those scratches.

"Me neither." His eyes flitted across the table to Lori, who swallowed and kept her eyes on the food T-Dog had made for her. "Not like me at all." Well, shit. This, combined with the conversation I'd heard at the quarry, was enough to make me believe that Shane and Lori were most definitely up to something. Could I tell Rick? Was it even my place to tell Rick?

I didn't get a chance to think about it anymore; the good doctor strolled in moments later and helped himself to a spoonful of eggs. "Morning."

"Mornin'"

"Hey, doc." He barely even had time to eat his eggs when Dale spoke to him.

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing..."

"But you will anyway."

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Doctor Jenner sighed, he looked old and tired in that moment, like he'd been dealing with a heavy burden for years and years. Jenner motioned for us all to follow him, and he led us to the 'Zone 5' area. Everyone who hadn't been in the dining area was given a chance to come down, and he waited patiently until the last people had entered the room before beginning.

"Give me playback of TS-19." His computer complied and brought up an image. "Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few."

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked.

"An extraordinary one." There was a note in his voice that was familiar to me. Remembrance, a hint of grief. Something I'd been through more than once since the dead had started walking. "Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for E.I.V." The images zoomed in closer, and eventually focused on a bunch of lights dancing around other large blue lumps. Synapses. This was the brain activity of a living person.

"What are those lights?" Shane asked. I answered out of habit.

"Synapses. It's brain activity. Thoughts, memories..."

"Very good." Jenner was impressed. "Did you study science."

"Nah. Brain activity is a big part of psychology." Upon his questioning look, I added, "I have a degree in Environmental Psychology."

"Must come in handy now."

"Not really." Rick moved closer to the screen as Jenner took over the conversation.

"Synapses play a big part in who you are, from life, to death."

"And this?" Rick asked, "This is the end, right? It's death."

"Yes."

"This person died? Who?"

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected... And volunteered to have us record the process." That age and sadness returned to his eyes, the lines on his face became more prominent. "Vi, scan forward to the first event." Suddenly, the brain activity began to drop, the image darkened. "It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands haemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be... Gone."

"Is that what would have happened to Jim?" Sophia asked her mother quietly.

"Yes." Andrea bit her lip and held back tears. After our conversation last night, I wasn't sure if I should try and approach her. Jenner, however, did, though it was Lori who gave him an answer.

"She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister."

"I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is. Scan to the second event." The brain began to light up in the area of the brain stem. The lights were no longer their magnificent blue. Instead, a rather dark, pulsating red flickered into existence. "The resurrection times vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute... Seven seconds."

"It restarts the brain?"

"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive?"

"You tell me."

"It's nothing like before." Rick replied. "Most of that brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part... That doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct." As he spoke, something rectangular and foreign entered the image from the top of the image. A single ribbon of light erupted from the end and shot straight into the head of his Test Subject. They stopped moving.

"Dios!" Miranda covered her children's eyes.

"God. What was that?" I knew, but with the way Jenner looked, I kept my mouth shut. That hidden rage, that light had reflected it in his eyes. Andrea, however, had not even noticed.

"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" As I'd already predicted, Jenner visibly withdrew into a shell and turned to his machines instead of Andrea.

"Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations."

"You have no idea what it is, do you?"

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, - fungal."

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui interrupted. Surprisingly, Jenner nodded.

"There is that."

"Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere." Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered somebody mentioning this, somewhere. It felt like years ago that this had first started, I could barely even remember last week.

"There are others, right? Other facilities?"

"There may be some. People like me."

"But you don't know? How can you not know?"

"Everything went down. Communications, directives... all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?" I thought of the entire world; Britain, Italy, France. All gone.

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but... That clock... It's counting down. What happens at zero?" Dale drew attention to the large red clock, counting further and further. It loomed ominously from the background of Zone 5, a countdown to something as big as the clock itself.

Jenner hesitated to answer. When he did, I wasn't so sure I believed him. "The basement generators... they run out of fuel."

"And then? Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." Jenner had disappeared around the corner before that damn computer even spoke a single word in that irritatingly calm voice. What was he hiding?

______________________________________________________

"You want to leave now?" Josie sat perched on the cot as I hurried to pack our bags. If we were quick, we'd get out before Rick and the others got back from checking out the basement generators.

"We gotta. Jenner ain't tellin' us everything." I heard her sniffle from behind me, and I had to think quickly to comfort the young child. "Hey, I know you like them, and I know you made some friends, but-"

"I don't wanna leave them."

"We had already planned to leave them anyway!"

"Then why didn't we?" She made sense, sorta. Why hadn't we left? We could have left the morning after we got there. Or we could have left when Rick and Daryl went looking for Merle. Or the day after that. And the day after that. Four separate occasions where we could have taken our shit and split. We hadn't. I hadn't.

"Kid-"

"The air conditioning just stopped." She interrupted. I looked up, trying to listen to the whirring noise. I found none.

The air conditioning was quickly followed by the lights. We were plunged into darkness. From the voices echoing in the rooms either side, I guessed that it wasn't just us.

"Grab your bag." I whispered. "We may need to leave now." I turned the handle and entered the hallway, where Jenner was stalking through like a man with a purpose. Everyone else had piled out of their rooms and were trying to pry information from Jenner.

"Why is the air off? And the lights in our room?"

"What's going on? Why is everything turned off?"

"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner answered. We turned in a different direction and ended up on a walkway leading directly down to Zone 5. Something wasn't right.

"Air isn't a priority? And lights?"

"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down."

"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean? Hey man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?" Jenner scoffed at Daryl and stepped up towards Zone 5.

"You'd be surprised." Rick, Shane, Glenn and T-Dog rounded the corner and noticed us all crowded into one area. Jenner had begun work on a computer, oblivious to the panic building amongst the other survivors.

"Jenner, what's happening?"

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule." He looked lost. I clutched Josie's hand and adjusted the bag on my shoulder, we could have to sprint for the door at any moment. Jenner cleared his throat and spoke again. "It was the French."

"What?"

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution." Close to a solution. So, we had almost had a cure, only for them to be cut down before they could figure out a way to stop the walkers.

"What happened?"

"The same thing that's happening here. No power grids. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" Shane had gone red. He unclenched his fist and jabbed a finger into Jenner's face.

"Let me tell you..."

"To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care. Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!" Rick was muffled by that damn computer. Her voice echoed across Zone 5 and informed us that there were thirty minutes until decontamination. I'd seen what the military had considered decontamination in the outside world; I didn't want to think about the ways you could decontaminate an entire building.

"Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go! Let's go." Shane shouted. Everyone scrambled for their things and rushed towards the door.

"Come on!" Glenn leapt up the ramp and sped towards the door. Before he reached it, they clanked shut. No handles, no buttons. We had no way of opening them. "No. Did you just lock us in?" Jenner was sat at the computer, making a voice recording of some sort. He did not response. "He just locked us in!" I joined Glenn at the doors, trying to find a way to pry them open. It took my mind off of things, blocked the voices out as Rick and Jenner faced off. I only turned my focus from the door when Jenner, quiet, reserved Jenner, began to shout.

"You know what this place is?! We protected the public from very NASTY STUFF!" He took a deep breath and began to rant again. "Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! EVER!" The seat below him creaked as he collapsed into it. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure... in a terrorist attack, for example... H.I.Ts are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"H.I.Ts?"

"Vi, define."

"H.I.Ts... high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000° and 6,000° and is used when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired." My heart tried to tear out of my chest. It beat faster and faster, pulling me into an abyss as Jenner's words stabbed at me. An explosion. Jenner was going to set off an explosion big enough to destroy and entire building. With us in it.

"It sets the air on fire." Jenner summarised quietly. "No pain. An end to sorrow, grief... Regret. Everything."

__________________________________________________

No matter how many times we beat at the door, begged Jenner to open them, tried reasoning, or even threatening (It hadn't earned Daryl, Shane and I any favour in Rick's eyes). Nothing worked. Jenner's decisions were set in stone.

It didn't take long for Daryl to completely snap, his whiskey bottle smashed against the doors and shattered onto the floor. It fazed nobody, every single person in the room had already seen worse today. "Open the damn door!"

Nothing would break through. Shane and Daryl began to beat at the door with axes. Nothing broke through. It had all led to this. Josie and I; we had escaped walkers, cross the entire state to get to the city, ran from spooks and soldiers alike. Lost family. Friends. Only to die at the hands of someone we had trusted to help save us.

"You should've left well enough alone. It would've been so much easier." Jenner was distant, and he spoke to nobody in particular. Even now, he still sounded comforting, like he planned to help us.

"Easier for who?" Lori spat, clutching Carl to her chest. The kids. Josie, Carl, Sophia, Eliza, Louis. They hadn't even been given the chance to survive.

"All of you. You know what's out there... A short, brutal life and an agonizing death." He turned to Andrea with those sad, sad eyes. "Your... your sister... what was her name?"

"Amy."

"Amy. You know what this does. You've seen it." And lastly, he turned to Rick, the man who had led us to our graves. No words could explain how much I wanted to hurt him right now. "Is that really what you want for your wife and son?"

"Hell, nobody wants to die out there, same as we don' wanna die in here!" I saw scarlet, came face to face with our would-be murderer. "You're a doctor-you're meant to save people, not blow'em up without even askin' if they wanna live!" For a moment, something else- a shadow of doubt, maybe even regret- pushed through that mask of indifference. It was forced back again faster than it came through.

"It's too late for that. It's easier this way, you get to say goodbye, you have time to prepare for your death. Would you rather be out there, never knowing when the infected will finally kill you?" Miranda choked back and sob and clutched her children to her chest. "How many have you lost, just like that." His fingers clicked. "How many haven't had the chance to say goodbye? Rick, you do want this. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." He had the decency to look ashamed as his wife and Shane glared at him.

"You really said that? After all your big talk?"

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?"

"There is no hope." Jenner interrupted "There never was. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."

"The hell it is" He almost seemed surprised, and still the bastard managed to maintain some sort of composure. "Humans survived the plague, and a shit ton of other diseases. CDC is livin' proof of that. We adapt, it's what humans do."

"This isn't just killing us- its bringing us back. How can anyone hope to survive this?"

"You did."

"What?" I ruffled him this time, he outwardly bristled. The only other sounds in the room were soft whimpers and the clatter of an axe against impenetrable metal.

"You stayed here. You had to have some sort of hope."

"I didn't stay because I wanted to. I made a promise to...to my wife." Despite a blank screen, he still gestured to it. Lori caught onto what he meant before I even managed to think over his words.

"Test subject 19 was your wife."

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just... Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."

"Maybe ya'll didn't find the cure. But it doesn't mean the rest of us have given up too."

"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Jenner glanced around the room; he listened to Lori and I plead. He saw the terrified faces of five children who were too young to go through this nightmare. He flinched at the cold, icy glare of Shane.

Wordlessly, Jenner swiped a card across the computer and punched in a number. The doors opened with a clank and whirring. "I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those."

"Come on, let's go!" Footsteps echoed down the halls as people began to leave. Carol rushed by with Sophia and mouthed a thanks to me.

T-Dog pulled Jacqui towards the exit, but she wrenched her arm from his hand and stepped back to Zone 5. I noticed that Andrea and Morales' family had also stayed where they were; their choice was painfully clear.

"No no, I'm staying. I'm staying, sweetie."

"But that's insane!"

"No, it's completely sane. For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy. There's no time to argue and no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out. Get out. Dog."

"We will stay too." Miranda announced. I had to say something. Her kids were afraid. Jesus, her kids.

"And do they want to stay?" The boy clutched his mother tightly. The girl said nothing.

"My husband is dead. Without him, who will keep us safe?"

"We will."

"No, you'll protect your own family first. Better to die together than have my babies be torn apart by monsters."

"I'm staying too." Andrea announced. I ignored her. She had a choice, Jacqui had her choice. Miranda could make her choice but she could never choose for her children.

"Your kids deserve to live- they deserve a chance! You can't keep them here because you're afraid." She looked at her children, I wondered if she saw the same fear I could see. "I can keep them safe. I can try."

"How can I trust you'll look after them?"

"I made you a widow because I made a choice. I'd like to try and make up for that." Spanish flowed back and forth between Miranda and her children. I caught a couple of words I understood, but nothing else. It was only when hands disconnected that I knew what choice had been made. "Thank you."

"Look after my babies." I said nothing. I glanced back at Jacqui and Jenner sat by the cameras, watching the group try and break the glass; I glanced to Dale trying to convince Andrea, and hoped that he would succeed. And finally, I looked back to Miranda, a woman who held me responsible for the death of her husband, who was trusting me to keep her children alive.

I left them quietly.

The glass had yet to be broken when I entered the lobby. Shane fired his shotgun at the window in a vain attempt to shatter it. Glass didn't even get a damn scratch.

Carol scuttled towards Rick with her handbag wide open. She dipped her hand inside. "Rick, I have something that might help."

"Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it." Shane added dryly. Carol wisely made the choice to ignore him.

"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." In her outstretched palm, she held a grenade. A grenade. The grenade from the tank! Of course!

Rick took it from her and moved to the window. It was a risky choice to make, it could break the glass. Or it could just blow up on the inside. The pin made a tiny little clink as he pulled it, held it in his hands for a minute before seemingly remembering he was holding the mini equivalent of a bomb. "Shit!"

It flung him through the air. But at least it broke the glass. Unfortunately, the blast had also attracted the attention of walkers. I jumped out and lifted down the Morales siblings, and hoped whoever was watching Josie could make sure she made it back to the cars. The two kids went with Rick and Lori in the RV as I leapt over a barrier to jump into Daryl's car. I could see the outline of a small girl in Shane's car; not quite sure how I felt about that.

The cars rumbled and engines crunched. I placed my hand on Daryl's arm to stop him from pushing down on the pedal. "What?"

"Look." Andrea and Dale were jumping down from the building. He'd done it. The RV windows winded down to let the screams of Lori and Rick escape.

"Dale- Dale get down!" Fire was building up inside the building. Daryl pushed my head down and joined at the bottom of the seats as the building exploded. The ashes of the CDC, of Jenner and Jacqui and Miranda, rained down on us. We'd lost two members of our group in a day. And we hadn't done a damn thing to stop them.

"Get in, get in, get in. Get in!" As Andrea and Dale entered the RV, I caught a glimpse of the girl- Morales' daughter Eliza. It was mentally seared into my brain forever.

The RV led, and the rest of us followed. The smoke continued to burn as we left behind old thoughts and hopes. Jenner had given us that chance. We'd take it.


	8. Epilogue: Bought Time

The road had been a long and silent drive. We'd made one stop, gathered around the cars and discussed a plan for when it got dark.

There was a rest stop just a little farther from the outskirts of Atlanta. After a quick scout inside the building, we found only four spooks, which were dispatched quietly. Shane and T-Dog moved shelves and heavy objects to the entrances, covered the windows with as much cloth as they could find.

Rick has us gathered inside the office; everything was beginning to sink in. This group had lost so many people in the last few days. I supposed I could say my group too. I'd trapped us here the moment I made the decision to take care of the two children that had recently been orphaned. Maybe once we were somewhere safer, I could convince someone to take them off my hands so we could leave and go back home. Arkansas was home. I had cousins there, if they hadn't been killed or turned by now.

"So Rick, that plan didn't work out like you planned." Shane commented dryly, crouching down onto his haunches.

"Shane, you be quiet."

"Wha- Lori, we just watched our only plan go up in flames. Literally. We ain't got enough gas to get anywhere, we barely made it here."

"We'll find somewhere. For now, we need to rest. We need time to mourn the people we lost." With those final words, Rick stood up and stepped outside. Lori suggested that she and Carol could stay in the office with all the kids; I left the three kids under my care with her and left the office.

Behind the till, I rummaged through my backpack for my sleeping bag. Where was it? I could see crackers, ammo, peanut butter, a hatchet- ah! I yanked the sleeping bag out and flung it to the ground. Today, I would rest. Tomorrow, we'd have to figure out our plan to leave.

I didn't sleep for hours. Everytime I drifted off, I had nightmares. It was always the same one. Miranda would appear, burned but still recognisable. She'd mouth words I couldn't hear and then morph into her husband, bitten and ragged. And then it would get much more personal; my mother, throat ripped and bloody. Dad, with a bullet in his head. Hunter, my youngest brother, with wounds made by humans, and not monsters. Carter never appeared dead, I usually heard his voice calling for me, but I never saw him.

Even after all those images, it was Caleb that hurt me the most. That stupid face tattoo was glazed with tears as he begged me to shoot him.

As he asked me to do what I knew I had to.

_________________________________________

"We need volunteers, some of the cars need to be left behind. We can siphon the gas."

"Well, I can give ya'll mine." Shane offered. T-Dog and, surprisingly, Daryl, also offered their own cars.

"Okay. So its settled."

"We'll have to move people around then."

"Okay." Rick agreed. "Carol and Sophia, we'll be with you two. Daryl is on his bike, and everyone else will be in the RV."

The sun outside was bright and cheery. Clear of walkers, it looked like a perfect day to be outside. Any other time, I could have been at home, waiting for Dad to finish cooking up a barbeque whilst Mom set up the table with Caleb.

Gas was siphoned from the three cars, and Daryl brought out his bike, which I assumed was Merle's. The SS symbol on the side was definitely something Merle would find funny on a bike. Daryl pulled it up in front of me and, after hesitating, offered to let me sit on the back instead of being in the RV. "S'better than being cramped into that RV."

"Uh, sure."

We rode out that same day, the RV tailing us as the bike hummed and growled alone the roads. The smoke from the CDC danced in the sky behind us as we left Atlanta behind. How long would it be before more of us died? How much time before we all died?

The long road left room to think.


	9. Part Two: Left

We'd been travelling two days. Jacqui and Miranda had died the day before last, something that stuck in all of our minds. The road was long, and we'd only stopped for a couple of hours rest before moving.

I clung to Daryl's waist as lightly as I could without crushing him. The only other motorbike I'd ever been on had been Caleb's, who drove like a maniac and liked to make sharp turns. The wind blew my hair into my face, making it very hard to see.

The bike's roars softened to a purr as we pulled up in front of a pile up of cars. The interstate stank of corpses and rot. From my view on the bike, I could see the outlines of bodies sat in the cars, all shapes and sizes. It was only when I saw the outline of a baby car seat that I decided I'd seen enough.

"We should go through, see if we can find a way through." Daryl mumbled, revving the bike back into life. "You got ma back?"

"Sure thing." We manoeuvred our way through the car wreckage, cautious and alert. A lot of cars usually meant lots of people, dead or alive. I made note of some cars; ones that had canned food in the open trunks, or had backpacks piled in the back seats. We could use all of that later.

"RV could fit through that gap there. Don't know if there's anythin' up ahead after tha'"

"I could get off the bike and look?" I suggested. Daryl shook his head.

"Nah. Best not go off alone right now. 'Sides, don't want you tryin' to skip out on us." My eyebrows furrowed as I tried to figure out what he meant. "Yeah, I know. Rick heard you and ya sister discussin' leavin' at some point."

"Oh really?"

"Uh huh. They don't think ya'll stick around long." He said, turning the bike back around to go tell the others what we had found.

"And what about you? Do you think I'm gonna stick around?" He went quiet. The RV appeared in sight, as well as Dale's head stuck out the window.

"See a way through?" Daryl nodded, and turned the bike around again to lead Dale through the cars. We barely even made it past the first few rows before the RV began to splutter and smoke. Guess our makeshift radiator hose replacement had finally gave out.

With the RV immobile, there was no point trying to move on yet. The sight of dirty and tired survivors piling out of cars was becoming a recurring image these days. Dale yanked the charred hose replacement out of the RV. "Well Liz, I guess that's not gonna work anymore. I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water. Even with a replacement. I need that new hose." Shane waved him off and gestured to the hundreds of cars lying unused.

"I'll be surprised if you can't find a radiator hose here. I'll keep an eye out."

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl added, rummaging through a car trunk for supplies.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start."

"Maybe some water-"

"Or food-"

"This is a graveyard." Lori added quietly. Everyone else stopped and stared at the thin woman, who stood there uncomfortably. "I don't know how I feel about this."

"Then don't think about it." She looked at me like I'd told her to throw Carl over a truck. "Scavenging is what's gonna keep all of us alive and moving. Anyone don't like it, ya'll welcome to wait in the RV." I heard small footsteps behind me as I stalked further up the interstate. I caught sight of pigtails the colour of burnt copper swinging in the breeze from the corner of my eye. Josie, understanding that I wanted silence, said nothing to me until we stopped walking.

"What about Louis and Eliza?"

"What about 'em?" I asked gruffly, rooting through a car. The car itself was in pretty good condition, and there was even a gas can in the trunk. "Hey, think we could wire this up? 'Nuff room to stock up on a load of shit we need."

"You wanna go?" Here we go again. I turned to face her and held her cheeks in my hands.

"Honey, Arkansas is the best place for us. We got cousins there. And if Carter is still alive, its exactly where he would head." Behind us, I could hear Shane and Glenn's laughter, as well as water splashing onto concrete. "We should see what they found."

I advanced back to the way we came, but Shane and Glenn were only in sight for a minute before they saw something behind them and shuffled under the cars. I caught the sight of one decomposing face looming in the distance and understood. "Josie- Josie!" She looked at me like a deer caught in headlights. "Under the cars, now!"

Despite wearing thick pants, I knew my knees were still scraped up as I crawled underneath a different car. From here, I could see almost everyone. Shane and Glenn under a truck, Lori and Carol, Carl, Sophia, Eliza and Louis. Dozens of decaying, mottled legs passed by us as they stumbled through, looking for their next kill. God, how many were there? It was an entire herd. I'd encountered herds of walkers before, in a creepy ass burger joint in Waco. Not a happy memory.

I watched a dozen bloody and bruising ankles stumble past. I couldn't make a sound, one wrong move could result in the walkers hearing me, and then there would be no escape. I was right, we should have left the morning after the quarry attack. This had been such a stupid idea.

I kept my eyes on Josie, and occasionally drifted to look at Eliza and Louis. I'd promised their mother I would look after them; so far, I was failing. I'd left them with the group.

The herd was beginning to thin out already, fewer and fewer legs passed by me. I looked to the Morales siblings to see that Louis had had the same thought and was beginning to crawl back out from under the car. I couldn't even shout to tell him to stop. He was halfway out before a walker, noticing the little boy's hand, dropped down to try and grab him. He cried out and shuffled backwards, forcing his sister to get out from under the car on the other side. They both escaped the walker but found themselves facing two instead of one.

My heart was beating fast, and the blood pounded through my veins as I watched those two kids disappear into the woods with walkers right behind them. Rick appeared out of nowhere and followed suit.

"Christ." I breathed, shuffling out from under the car to jog towards the area they'd disappeared into. "How the hell did nobody see those walkers?"

"Oh god- Liz, they were behind the cars." Carol answered tearfully, clutching her own daughter tight, as if afraid a walker would suddenly come and chase Sophia too. "I should have been paying more attention, I-"

"A blind spot." Shane added. "No way anyone could have seen 'em. Ain't your fault Carol."

"He's right honey." Lori wrapped her arm around Carol's shoulders.

"Hey!" Daryl waded through the cars, supporting T-Dog, who was paling by the minute. "He lost a hell lotta blood."

"Get him into the RV." Shane commanded.

We waited for Rick to return with the two kids. Andrea sat on a bonnet, looking rather petulant; she pouted like a child whose favourite toy had been taken from her.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Nothin', it's just..." She unfolded a cloth to reveal the parts of a disassembled gun. "I couldn't put the gun back together. Maybe I could'a killed that walkers if I knew how to put it back together."

"That woulda been stupid. Gunshot would have attracted them all to you." She looked down and fiddled with the gun parts. "But you kinda wanted that, didn't you?"

"I don't know. I mean- I thought- but... I couldn't just let that walker kill me. I fought back."

"It's called survival instinct. Try using it more often." The tips of her ears went red, and her head shot up.

"The hell is that supposed to mean?"

"What- no, I didn't-"

"No, you did. I wanted out of all of this, and both you and Dale seem to have a problem with that. You did the same thing to Miranda about her kids."

"Those kids deserve a chance." I felt the heat rising between us, a burning clash of opinions.

"Those kids don't deserve to be ripped apart like their dad! Not that you seem to care, you looked after them a day, and they've already gone missing." I wanted to hurt her- push it further and further until one of us completely snapped. But the sound of branches snapping in the woods drew out attention.

Lori and Shane bounded out of the RV and rushed to see what was coming up the embankment. Rick's face withdrew from the trees, followed by the rest of him as he hoisted himself up the slope and back onto the road. He looked around, before finally speaking.

"They- they ain't back yet?"

________________________________________

The search party went out immediately and left everyone else to worry and fret. I couldn't help but picture the different scenarios that could have happened instead: if Carl had run, or Sophia, or my sister. She'd fallen asleep waiting; I left her in the RV.

Losing the two kids reminded me of another time, not long ago. A boy, fifteen, with fire in his eyes and a southern twang that got stronger in anger. The self-proclaimed 'middle child' of a family with five kids. Carter's first thought would have been to head back to Arkansas after we got separated. Any chance of reuniting with my brother was a chance I would take. I couldn't just leave him.

My thoughts spread from Carter to Merle Dixon, who's younger brother also caged fire in his eyes. When I'd made the decision to leave Morales, and to forget T-Dog, I also made the decision to leave Merle too, whether it was conscious or not. It was best that Daryl didn't find that out.

Andrea had retreated to the RV with Lori. Thank God. She was nice enough when she wanted to be, but today wasn't one of those days. Carol, unlike the other two, had stayed outside with Sophia. She stood by the railing, waiting, watching. We locked eyes, and I knew she had been plagued with the same thoughts as I had, imagining her own daughter out in the woods.

"You think they'll be back soon?" I shrugged and sat in the same place Andrea had earlier. "God, I can't imagine what's going through their heads. If it was my baby..." Her voice faded as she stroked Sophia's hair.

"I know. They should be back soon." It was like I was psychic; Shane and Glenn retreated from the forest seconds later. Their boots were caked with mud and leaves. Both men looked defeated. "What did ya find?"

"They weren't where Rick left 'em, that's for sure." Shane replied. "One set of prints started to head back our way, and then followed the other set further into the woods."

"It's weird." Glenn agreed, throwing himself onto the car bonnet next to me. "It's like they just changed their minds."

"Or got scared of something." I suggested. I thought of the walkers who had passed through. Any one of them could have wandered off the path and come across the kids.

"No other footprints." Shane headed inside the RV to tell the others. Glenn turned to Carol and I and changed the subject.

"Hey, how's T-Dog?"

"Not as bad as he was before." Carol sent Sophia off to play with Carl under Dale's watchful eye. "Lori and I cleaned him up. But he needs medicine to stop the infection from spreading, as well as painkillers."

"And we don't have any?" Carol shook her head. Glenn sighed, and pulled his cap further down onto his head.

"I hope they're back soon, it's getting dark." The sky was almost violet; it was beautiful despite everything going on. The sun had set behind the RV and left room for the moon to begin to rise.

"What if they find them and something happened?" Although he hadn't said it aloud, I knew what he meant. Rick would never be able to shoot either one of the kids if they were bitten. If they had turned, maybe, but not enough time had passed for either to have become a walker.

The sky got darker and darker as time passed by, and there was still no sign of Daryl and Rick, or the kids. Every so often, Lori would leave the RV, scan the surroundings beyond the rails, and then shuffle back inside without a word to any of us.

It was Glenn who noticed Daryl and Rick climbing back up the embankment. "Oh God, they're back." There was no child in sight. "Did the tracks show up?"

"Their trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light."

"Lotta things can happen between now and tomorrow morning." I commented. There were murmurs of agreement amongst the group.

"Out in the dark's no good." Daryl argued. "We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people get lost."

"I know this is hard. But I'm asking everyone not to panic. We know they were out there."

"And we tracked them for a while."

"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."

"I can track." I admitted. "I'm not great at it, but I ain't too bad." Years of hunting with my dad and Caleb had taught me self-sufficiency. I could hunt and kinda track, but skinning was something I always left to Dad.

Carol looked down at Daryl's pants, and her face whitened. "Is that blood?" This elicited louder murmurs from the group as they tried to get a look at the darkening red patch on Daryl's pant leg. Daryl himself looked uncomfortable with all the attention and tried his hardest to withdraw into himself.

"We took down a walker." At the alarmed looks on everyone's faces, he tried to reassure us. "There was no sign it was ever anywhere near either of them."

"How can you know that?"

"We cut the sumbitch open, made sure." The thought of cutting open a walker to look for the remains of a child turned my stomach. I'd seen a lot of shit in the last few weeks, but gutting a walker was where I drew the line. I couldn't imagine looking through its innards, and I certainly didn't know what I'd do if I actually found human flesh. I'd been in charge of looking after those kids, it should've been me who went after them. Me.

I tried to put that part of me to the back of my mind. The boy had made the decision to get out from under the car, I'd couldn't have done anything to stop him. They couldn't have gotten too far, they were two kids aged twelve and eight.

Two terrified kids who were alone in the dark with monsters roaming around.

"It was my only option. The only choice I could make." Rick tried to reassure us. He didn't even sound all that convinced. Shane cleared his throat to try and save Rick from another onslaught of questions.

"We, uh, we should all get some rest. Comon folks, find somewhere to sleep." With Josie still asleep in the RV, I was able to find a small, clean car to sleep in. Dale gave me one of his many fleece blankets and bid me goodnight.

Tomorrow, we'd have to find those kids.


	10. Church Bells A'Ringing

A dozen weapons were laid out on the bonnet of the RV. Carl had apparently found them yesterday, according to Lori. They were all melee. Sharp machetes and knives and hatchets. I already had all three (The hatchet was in my bag, whilst the machete and hunting knife were kept on my person), though I'd likely use my bow in an emergency anyway.

"Everybody takes a weapon." Andrea examined the collection and scoffed.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?"

"You learn how to put a gun together and suddenly you need one?" She glared at me, her eyes flitted down to stare at my gun, which was kept nice and tight in its holster. "I know what I'm doing with mine, do you?"

"We've been over this Andrea. Daryl, Rick, Liz and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."

"It's not the trees I'm worried about."

"If you have a gun, I think we should be worried about 'em." I muttered under my breath. Only Carol heard me, and she placed her hand over her mouth to avoid laughing aloud and bringing Andrea's wrath down on her.

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it." Andrea huffed and snatched a knife from the line.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side." Daryl laid out the plans for everyone, making sure we all heard. "Chances are they'll be by the creek. It's their only landmark."

"Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other."

"Everybody assemble your packs." I jogged to the RV to check on Sophia and Josie, who were both staying here with Dale and T-Dog. We'd already lost two kids; Carol and I agreed that it was best if they stayed safe here.

Josie looked up at me as I sat down and grinned. "Hi. Are you leaving yet?"

"In a minute. Just wanted to make sure you're okay." She handed Sophia something red -a crayon- and hugged me tightly. "Woah. Uh, ow, Josie."

"Come back quickly. I don't like being alone." My heart went out for her. She was ten years old, and already she'd lost almost everyone she knew.

"You're not alone, you have Sophia."

"S'not the same." Whilst we held each other, I heard raised voice from the door of the RV. Curiosity got the better of me, and I stepped outside after saying goodbye to the kids.

"NO, Dale, you're doing it for YOU. You need to stop." Andrea was stood outside, hands on hips. She had cornered Dale. "What do you think's gonna happen? I'm gonna stick it in my mouth and pull the trigger the moment you hand it to me?" Ah. This was about that god damn gun. Despite being told she couldn't carry one, she was still so goddamn adamant.

"I know you're angry at me. That much is clear. But if I hadn't done what I did, you'd be dead now."

"Jenner gave us an option. I chose to stay-"

"You chose suicide-"

"So what's that to you? You barely know me-"

"I know Amy's death devastated you-" It was the final straw for Andrea. She went red and snapped at him faster than a crocodile could get out of water.

"Keep her out of this! This is not about Amy. This is about us. And if I decided that I had nothing left to live for, who the hell are you to tell me otherwise? To force my hand like that?"

"I saved your life-" Dale protested weakly; Andrea cut him off with a sharp snarl and more acidic words.

"No, Dale. I saved yours. You forced that on me. I didn't want your blood on my hands and that is the only reason I left that building. What did you expect? What, I'd have some kind of epiphany? Some life-affirming catharsis?"

"Maybe just a little gratitude."

"Gratitude? I wanted to die my way, not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was my choice. You took that away from me, Dale-"

"But-"

"But you know better? All I wanted after my sister died was to get out of this endless horrific nightmare we live every day. I wasn't hurting anyone else. You took my choice away, Dale. And you expect gratitude?"

"I don't know what to say."

"I'm not your little girl. I'm not your wife. And I am sure as hell not your problem. That's all there is to say." She noticed me staring as I walked past. "What?"

"Complain all ya want, you ain't getting a gun." She stood, seething, as I leapt over the railing and joined the others in the forest. "Are you comin' or what?"

_________________________________________

We walked for an hour with no luck. Daryl and I searched for any signs of disturbance in the forest; footprints, marks on the trees, even blood if it came to it (I sincerely hoped it wouldn't). We'd also developed a system with Rick: if anything was spotted that could possibly point to the kids being hurt or worse, we would investigate in a pair first to avoid panic.

Like now, when Rick spotted what looked like a smear of blood on a tree. I followed him over and took a closer look. "Could be blood. Looks a little thick though."

"Could've began drying." He suggested, I agreed with him. Still, would it have dried so quickly? And like that? Blood didn't usually have that sheen or look as bubbly. I thought back to the last time I'd seen something like this and took the chance. "What the-" Rick watched in horror as I swiped the 'blood' from the tree with my finger. It was sticky and gloopy, and actually more transparent when it was on my finger.

"Rick, look. Look at the tree," He leaned in close and stared at the spot the 'blood had been'.

"What did ya'll find?" Shane shouted from behind us. I held up my finger to show them and licked it clean.

"Sap. It's some sort of maple tree, I think." As Rick and I walked back to the group and muttered "If we had a spile I could'a gotten us some sap, boiled it up for us." He stalked further ahead after a small, albeit forced smile; Rick and I weren't on the friendliest of terms; ever since I had killed the gang member in Atlanta, Rick had been looking at me like he'd never actually seen me before. Before we'd left Atlanta, he'd promised not to tell people in the group about what had happened, and how we had gotten the guns back. I couldn't rely on Glenn or T-Dog in the same way.

The forest continued to grow ahead of us, winding and twisted trees blocked some paths, and made others. Leaves crunched and fell around us; fallen soldiers of the woods that had swallowed two of our members.

Daryl stopped us several feet away from a tent. It was closed up; either the owner had wandered off, or they were still inside. We had no way of knowing what would happen if we opened the flap.

"They could be in there." Shane whispered, edging closer and closer.

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl countered. Rick began to call out softly. If Louis and Eliza were inside, we didn't want to scare them.

Daryl snaked towards and entrance of the tent and slowly, slowly lifted the zipper and opened the tent. Louis and Eliza weren't inside. The smell of rotting flesh permeated the air like a bad perfume. Whoever was in there had been dead longer than a night. "It ain't them." Daryl called.

"Who is it?"

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" As he exited the tent, church bells began to ring. It was faint, but audible. Church bells. Two months into an apocalypse. What?

"What direction?"

"That way." I replied. The group splintered as everyone picked up speed.

"Damn, it's hard to tell out here."

"If we heard them, maybe the kids did too."

"They could be ringing them." Rick spotted the church; a tiny white chapel. The bells continued to ring, but something was wrong with this church, I just couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Shane noticed it first "That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells. Rick." Rick ignored him and threw open the doors to the church. Sitting in the pews were walkers. A pastor, a bride, and man in denim dungarees and a teenage girl in her Sunday best. "Daryl, Rick, Liz, gimme a hand."

I crept around to the teenage girl, who turned to me and snarled. Uck, I wished she had stayed facing the other way. Live maggots crawled in what was left of her eye socket, and her lip hung to her chin. I unsheathed the machete from my belt and jammed it through her skull. She crumpled to the floor and bled out onto the carpet. Hmm. Would I go to hell for killing something in a church that was already dead?

Rick screamed out loud in frustration. Nobody was here but the walkers. Our sign of hope had been quickly crushed. "I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple."

"What other churches would there be?" I asked. The bells began to chime again, the sound was deafening, but I could tell it was coming from outside.

Glenn and Daryl rushed around to the side and pulled down some sort of mechanism. The bells immediately stopped. Daryl huffed and held up the electronic device. "A timer. It's on a timer."

"But a church means we're near somewhere with people, right?" Carol stated, wrapping herself in her cardigan. "They might have seen a town or something."

"Maybe." I said, she looked at me and mouthed 'thank you'. I hadn't known Carol long, but Josie had told me what an asshole her husband had been. I could only imagine how many times she had suggested something, only to be shot down because she seemed weaker and soft spoken. I followed her back into the church and allowed her to pray for Louis and Eliza. While I didn't believe it would do too much good, I couldn't bring myself to stop her.

With all this time to spare, I decided to worry about my sister. Would she be okay back at the RV with Dale and Sophia? T-Dog was sick, he wasn't much use, if they were attacked he wouldn't be able to help much.

The church loomed in the background as we waited outside for Rick to give the orders. He was busy talking to Shane. They spoke in hushed tones, and I could only catch the odd word. Something about the creek bed, and miracles. Shane coughed and rotated to direct the group. "Ahem. Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough."

"You're splitting us up?" Daryl questioned, pushing off from a tree had had been leant against. "You sure?"

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you." Carl darted forwards and tugged on Rick's arm.

"I want to stay too. I'm their friend." Rick and Lori agreed that he could go, and we set off in different directions.

_________________________________________

The forest was peaceful. There was an air of serenity that worked like an invisible mist, shrouding us. Even so, it was best that we didn't let our guard down. It only took one walker to turn the entire group into a panic-driven mosh pit.

"So this is it? This the whole plan?" We trekked further and further into the woods, relying only on Daryl to get us back to the RV without losing anyone else.

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups."

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks." Andrea added bitterly. She glanced down at Lori and sneered. "I see you have a gun."

Lori's face morphed. Within seconds, her features had twisted into an ugly expression. Andrea, sensing that she had said something wrong, tried to back away and apologise. Lori just cut her off and began to rant.

"Why, you want it? Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me." She thrust the gun at Andrea, who took it hesitantly. "All of you. When those kids ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after them the way he did or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently. Anybody? Y'all look to him and then you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you." Everyone stayed silent; if we spoke, there was a chance that she would tear our heads off without a second thought. Maybe before, I would've agreed with her, but Rick made his decisions based on his time as a cop, rather than his survival instincts. If we hadn't headed to the CDC, we might have still had Jacqui and Miranda with us. His compassion, all that made him the good, kind person he was, could end up getting us all killed.

Daryl, finally sensing that we were never going to move anywhere if nobody spoke, suggested moving. We barely even made it that far before a sound echoed throughout the trees.

The sound of a gunshot in the direction of Rick.

"What the hell was that?" Glenn yelped, spinning around to face the direction we'd came. I wrapped my arms around Lori and pulled her back as she attempted to run back to the church. Back to Rick. I really couldn't afford to lose Rick's wife before he even came back to the group.

"Let go!" She snapped, trying her hardest to pry my arms off of her. Unfortunately, I held the advantage. Lori was a 5' 7", thin and bony. I was 5'11" and used a bow and arrow, which took serious arm strength. She barely even moved a single finger from her forearm.

"You're no good wandering around on your own." She continued to struggle as I yanked her back towards the group. "Don't make me drag your ass all the way back to the interstate Lori."

After she had (eventually) calmed down and walked the way we were meant to, I hung back to step into line with Daryl. "Hey."

"Hey." He shouldered his crossbow. I took the time to bring up a previous subject I had yet to gain an answer for.

"You didn't answer me, back on the bike."

"Didn't think you needed one."

"I don't. But I want it." He watched the leaves move underneath him; I noticed that he was actually shorter than me, though not by much. Before, I'd been too busy trying to save his brother and listening to him run his mouth to notice. Huh. How about that.

"We should send someone to look for Rick before we get back." Lori spoke before Daryl had the chance to answer me. He veered away and stood by Carol.

"You still worrying about it?"

"It was a gunshot. We all heard it. Why one- why just one gunshot?" Lori quizzed, looking back worriedly. Now that I thought about it, she was right; even if Rick was stupid enough to shoot a walker, Shane would have stopped him.

"Maybe they took down a walker." Andrea suggested, much to Lori's apparent amusement, as she snorted and shook her head lightly.

"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker, or Shane. They'd do it quietly."

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?"

"There's nothing we can do about it, anyway." Daryl added, "can't run around these woods chasing echoes."

"So, what do we do?"

"Same as we've been. Beat the bush for the kids, work our way back to the highway. I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV." We trailed further through the trees to the interstate. It felt like we were walking longer than before. Every step we took felt like a step away from finding those kids.

"God, I just feel horrible going back to the interstate without finding the kids. I just pray we find them before they wind up like Amy- Oh!" Carol clapped her hands over her mouth, eyes brimming with tears. She looked at Andrea and apologised. "That's the worst thing I've ever said."

"We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth."

"I'll tell ya what it's worth-" Daryl cut in, "Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time, all this hopin' and prayin'. We're gonna locate those kids. They're gonna be just fine. Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord."

"Good for you. Some of us are tired of all this trekkin'." I hmmphed and kicked up leaves in my path. "They've gotten further than I thought two kids would."

"I just wanna know why they veered off track like they did." Glenn said, swinging his machete aimlessly.

"Careful with that."

"Right. Sorry."

The forest continued to stretch farther and farther. It would be dusk by the time we made it back to the interstate. Rick, Shane and Carl still had yet to catch up with us.

The musky smell of damp wood and the forest greenery was beginning to sting my nose. If it started raining I was gonna be upset. Rain was not my thing. When Dad took Caleb and I hunting in the rain, I would refuse to leave the car.

Where could Eliza and Louis have gone? Rick should have told them to stay right where they were. He never should have let them try to make it back on their own. A twelve-year-old and an eight-year-old.

"Where the hell are they?" Lori asked. Rick's wife had been growing more and more frustrated by the minute. Rick had been missing for almost two hours now. "How much farther?"

"Not much..." Daryl scanned the sky and the surrounding area. "Maybe a hundred yards as the crow flies."

"Too bad we're not crows." Andrea grumbled. She continued to mumble and moved away from the group. I lost sight of her in the bushes.

"Andrea?" There was a loud wheezing in her direction, and then gargled groans. Soon, Andrea began to scream. "Daryl!" Shit.

"No-no-Oh, no!" There was a softer sound, a rhythmic thumping of- horse hooves? I burst through the treeline in time to see the walker knocked down by a woman on a horse. She skidded to a halt in front of us and demanded to speak to Lori. Andrea, clearly still startled, lay in the grass behind her; she hadn't even attempted to withdraw her blade.

"I'm Lori."

"Rick sent me- you've got to come now." That was what had taken Rick so long? Jesus, how far had he gotten? "There's been an accident- Carl's been shot. He's still alive but you've gotta come now. Rick needs you- just come!" Lori's face drained of all blood; I could almost see her heart thumping through her chest. She unfroze and rushed to take the woman's hand. Daryl, ever the pessimist, tried to stop her.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa! We don't know this girl. You can't get on that horse."

"Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl? Backtrack to Fairburn road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox- name's Greene- hee-yah!" With that, the woman disappeared with Lori into the forest. I almost giggled- giggled- as I noticed Glenn staring after her like a dumbstruck teenage fangirl.

Daryl frowned and stormed ahead to reach the interstate, stopping only to put a bolt into the head of the walker the woman had knocked down. "Shut up."


End file.
